Lux Research, an energy consulting and research firm, projects that Trump’s policies as compared to Clinton’s would lead to 3.4 billion tons of additional carbon emissions by 2024.

Lux Research

That’s the presidential election. In short, one candidate doesn’t believe that one of the most challenging problems of our time exists, and moreover he wants to make it worse as soon as possible. He would, as one writer put it, “cook the planet.” The other will try to remedy it with the tools at her disposal—though climate activists are already planning to push her to act faster.

Woof. Though a bracing choice, it isn’t a particularly novel one. American voters have faced a choice somewhat like this in every presidential election since 2000, although the GOP position on climate change has gotten more extreme over time.

Yet there are fascinating electoral battles over climate change this year—they’re just tucked away in the states. Florida and Washington will both consider ballot initiatives that could shape the U.S. climate-change debate for years, and Nevada and Colorado will vote on referenda with environmental undertones. Taken together, these state referenda present a window into how climate change functions as an issue in the United States in 2016, how it connects to other political concerns, and how it could change in the years to come. Here’s a brief tour.

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Expanding renewable energy is one of the few climate issues that Americans broadly favor. A Pew survey earlier this year found that more than 80 percent of the country supports boosting solar and wind power.

It’s so popular, in fact, that energy companies seem to be trafficking in the language of green energy while actually obstructing their progress.

Enter Florida, where voters face a bait-and-switch ballot initiative. On its face, the referendum known as Amendment 1 seems to alter the state’s constitution so that Floridians gain a constitutional right to own or lease solar equipment. So far, so bland. Advertisements supporting the initiative (most of are underwritten by state power utilities) imply that the measure will help solar power grow in the state.

But Floridians already have a right to own solar equipment, provided by state statute. And Amendment 1 actually includes a second, more important provision: It “[enacts] constitutional protection ensuring that … residents who do not produce solar energy can abstain from subsidizing its production.”

Why does that matter? Right now, Floridians are able to buy solar panels and then sell any excess energy back to their utility company. This behavior, called “net metering,” is a standard benefit of owning solar panels across the country, but it can—in a certain, corporate-socialistic light—be seen as a “subsidy” by other rate payers. Amendment 1’s critics believe it lays the legal groundwork to ban net metering. This would make owning and providing solar energy more expensive.