By Energize Weekly.

Energy policy, legislation and initiatives are alive and bipartisan in the state houses across the country even as they are bogged down in the nation’s capital, according to the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University.

More than 12,500 energy bills were introduced in state legislatures between 2013 and 2016, with 1,926 passing, according to the center’s Advanced Energy Legislation Tracker. In 2017, 3,046 bills have already been introduced with 350 passing.

“If you look at the combination of what is happening in blue and red and purple states, there is far more happening than is happening at the federal level,” Bill Ritter, the center’s director and former governor of Colorado, told Energize Weekly in a wide-ranging interview.

“We track every piece of legislation introduced at the state level until it dies or becomes law,” Ritter said. “What is so interesting, so different from what is happening in the United States Congress and the Trump administration is that there is a real bipartisan flavor to what is happening at the state level.”