The publication of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed rule to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from existing power plants under section 111(d) of the federal Clean Air Act in the Federal Register on June 18, 2014, marks the official launch of a multi-year engagement between EPA and state regulators. EPA’s proposal reflects a comprehensive and flexible integration of energy and environmental policy, which EPA further extended by setting state-specific targets that allow each state to measure progress against itself. Moreover, it accepts policies that reduce GHG emissions both at the power plant level and more broadly through demand-side and renewable programs that reduce the need to utilize fossil-fueled supply resources. The typical response to a new federal regulation is to try to analyze all the options in order to determine the most cost-effective approaches for possible implementation. For the 111(d) proposal, however, the number of options is too great, the available economic models are generally too limited or otherwise inadequate, the time window is too short, and states have too few resources to consume them analyzing rule provisions that may never take effect. Instead, state officials may be best served by doing what they already do best: undertaking expeditious planning with an eye toward underlying considerations that are often overlooked. This paper, offers ten concrete actions that state energy regulators, environmental regulators, consumer advocates, and energy officers can take now and over the next year to lay the groundwork for developing an effective, approvable state 111(d) plan.