BOOKS

The Carbon Wave: A Story of Democracy, Parenthood, and the Race to Protect Our Planet.

Releasing September 1, 2026. The MIT Press. PREORDER HERE

They were perhaps an unlikely trio: the professor Leah Stokes, the policy wonk Sonia Aggarwal in the White House, and the DC insider Adrian Deveny in the Senate, but together, they crafted the boldest climate legislation of our time. In The Carbon Wave, Stokes chronicles the turbulent path of their climate bill as it veered between breakthrough and collapse—from the hopeful beginnings of the Green New Deal in 2018, to the bill’s near-certain defeat by Senator Joe Manchin in the winter of 2021, to the surprise passage of the landmark legislation in August 2022. During this critical time, the author was pregnant or in the NICU with her premature twins, and Aggarwal and Deveny were new parents too.

Interlacing personal narratives with stories from Congress, the White House, and outside activists, Stokes shows how dogged perseverance and collective action can still bend the course of history. The book concludes with an update from the second Trump administration, explaining the parts of the bill that were—and were not—rolled back, and why we should remain hopeful that progress is still being made.

Everyone has been told to shrink their carbon footprint and lighten their load on our planet by changing their behavior. But what if instead of making ourselves smaller, we joined with others to maximize our impact? That’s the carbon wave. And this book shows us how to make it.

Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle Over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the American States

Winner, Best Energy Book 2020, American Energy Society.

Winner, Don K. Price Book Award, Best Book on Science, Technology, and Politics, APSA, 2021

Winner, Virginia Gray Book Award, Best Book on U.S. State Politics or Policy, APSA, 2021.

Winner, Alan Rosenthal Prize, Legislative Studies section, APSA, 2021.

Listed in The New York Times, 5 climate books from 2020

Available as an e-book. Available as an audiobook.

Video recording of the Virtual Book Launch event with Bill McKibben and Brad Plumer.

“This is a book of the very first importance, a stunningly good piece of investigation that lays bare the answer to what may be the world's most important mystery: why are we moving so slowly to address the greatest crisis the planet has ever faced? It should be read-and memorized-by everyone who deals with energy policy in any way, shape, or form."

— Bill McKibben, Middlebury College

In 1999, Texas passed a landmark clean energy law, beginning a groundswell of new policies that promised to make the US a world leader in renewable energy. As Leah Stokes shows in Short Circuiting Policy, however, that policy did not lead to momentum in Texas, which failed to implement its solar laws or clean up its electricity system. Examining clean energy laws in Texas, Kansas, Arizona, and Ohio over a thirty-year time frame, Stokes argues that organized combat between advocate and opponent interest groups is central to explaining why states are not on track to address the climate crisis. She tells the political history of our energy institutions, explaining how fossil fuel companies and electric utilities have promoted climate denial and delay. Stokes further explains the limits of policy feedback theory, showing the ways that interest groups drive retrenchment through lobbying, public opinion, political parties and the courts. More than a history of renewable energy policy in modern America, Short Circuiting Policy offers a bold new argument about how the policy process works, and why seeming victories can turn into losses when the opposition has enough resources to roll back laws.