After decades of denying the reality of climate change or minimizing its importance, we have come to a point where only a rapid reduction in global carbon emissions can prevent very serious impacts on the generations just ahead.  For that to happen, governments everywhere, including U.S. state governments, need to do all they can. That means promoting energy efficiency, shifting from coal to natural gas, and removing all policy barriers to the use of renewable energy systems at both the rooftop and utility scale. If next generation nuclear technology proves cost-effecting, that also needs to be utilized. Utilities need to be incentivized by state policy to change their business models so that they become active partners in this shift rather than obstacles to it. A rapid shift can onlty succeed if utilities play a major role in areas ranging from net metering to grid modernization and grid-scale storage. Balanced policies are needed to drive rapid decarbonization while assuring that utilities have the resources to effectively play their critical role.