In the years before Hurricane Helene ravaged North Carolina last week, the state’s Republican lawmakers and corporate interests continually fought climate adaptation and mitigation measures that could have helped communities withstand the storm’s tidal surge, hurricane-force winds, and widespread flooding.

While North Carolina was once a national leader in renewable energy and climate change resiliency policies, that changed in the early 2010s when Republicans secured control of both chambers of the state’s legislature and a former utility company executive moved into the governor’s mansion. Since then, GOP politicians and their big-business allies have sabotaged climate resiliency projects, delayed plans to embrace renewable energy, and stonewalled efforts to prepare the state for stronger storms and a rising sea.

“The Republican approach to climate change has been much like an ostrich with its head in the sand,” said Dan Crawford, director of governmental relations at North Carolina’s League of Conservation Voters, a nonprofit group focused on environmental policy. “And if you’re ignoring all of these things that are happening in the world, it’s going to have effects.”