2027 NFPA 70E, State by State

01Why state pages exist on a national standard’s site

2027 NFPA 70E doesn’t change at the state line. Four things around it do — and together they decide what compliance actually costs you:

• Who enforces it. Twenty-two states run full OSHA-approved plans; seven cover public employees only; the rest are federal-OSHA states. In several of those, public employees have no workplace safety coverage at all — no inspections, no citations, nothing.
• What the license means. Some states license individual electricians, some license only contractors, some license nothing statewide and leave it to municipalities. Continuing education ranges from 32 hours per cycle to zero. Almost nowhere does it require 2027 NFPA 70E work practices.
• Which code is installed. Adopted NEC editions across the states span 2017 to 2023 — a six-year spread, and several states adopt nothing statewide at all. Installation code has no bearing on your work-practice obligation, but it tells you a lot about the equipment your people are opening.
• What actually kills people there. Tree work in Georgia. Storm restoration in Florida. Overhead line contact everywhere. The cases are local even when the standard isn’t.

02All fifty states, each with real cited cases

• Alabama

  Federal OSHA · No public coverage. Auto plants, steel, and a $227K willful paper-mill electrocution. Two area offices for the whole state.

• Alaska

  AKOSH Full State Plan. Remote lone-worker sites where the 2027 additional-person rule bites hardest — plus official AKOSH fatalgrams as case studies.

• Arizona

  ADOSH Full State Plan. Fab commissioning, a top-3 data center market, and the 2022–23 federal showdown over the plan itself.

• Arkansas

  Federal OSHA · No public coverage. Poultry, steel, and four cases straight from OSHA investigation records.

• California

  Cal/OSHA State Plan. Title 8 Electrical Safety Orders split by voltage, the mandatory IIPP, 8-hour serious injury reporting, and 32-hour CE.

• Colorado

  Federal OSHA · No public coverage. DJ Basin energy, a state electrical board with real CE — and a steel-mill LOTO fatality.

• Connecticut

  CONN-OSHA public-only plan. Submarines, aerospace, and the two-system split every CT employer has to navigate.

• Delaware

  Federal OSHA · No public coverage. Chemical legacy, Delmarva poultry, and four OSHA-record cases in the nation’s second-smallest state.

• Florida

  Federal OSHA · No public coverage. Public employees uncovered since 2000. Storm restoration, generator backfeed, and 11 total CE hours per cycle.

• Georgia

  Federal OSHA · No public coverage. EV megasites and line-clearance fatalities in the same state. Class I is restricted, Class II isn’t — and CE Broker starts 2026.

• Hawaii

  HIOSH Full State Plan. Island grids, the highest rooftop-PV penetration in the country, and a maritime jurisdiction seam at every port.

• Idaho

  Federal OSHA · No public coverage. Micron’s fab buildout, irrigation near overhead lines, and a DOE consent order at INL.

• Illinois

  Public-employee State Plan. Chicago runs its own code — still 2017 NEC — its own licensing, and Class 1 rules requiring 8,000 apprenticeship hours.

• Indiana

  IOSHA Full State Plan. Steel, auto, and RV country — with no statewide electrician license, only a municipal patchwork.

• Iowa

  Iowa OSHA Full State Plan. Grain, wind, and data centers — plus a three-employer arc flash citation that reads like a 70E case study.

• Kansas

  Federal OSHA · No public coverage. Aviation, meatpacking, grain — and licensing that changes at every county line.

• Kentucky

  KY OSH State Plan. Auto and battery-belt manufacturing, bourbon’s classified locations — and a 2025 law that reshaped the plan’s authority.

• Louisiana

  Federal OSHA · No public coverage. The river petrochemical corridor, LNG, hurricanes — and contractor-level licensing only.

• Maine

  Public-employee State Plan. Bath Iron Works, paper mills, storm restoration — and licensing that reaches down to helpers.

• Maryland

  MOSH Full State Plan. Port of Baltimore’s federal seam, Data Center Alley spillover, and a brand-new statewide license law.

• Massachusetts

  Public-employee State Plan (2022). Biotech, network vaults, and a $333K willful Eversource case that anchors the enforcement story.

• Michigan

  MIOSHA Full State Plan. Federal rules renumbered into Parts 39/40/85/86/33. MIOSHA does not adopt 70E. No recurring electrician CE at all.

• Minnesota

  MNOSHA Full State Plan. AWAIR programs, state LOTO rules, and five cases from MNOSHA’s own investigation logs.

• Mississippi

  Federal OSHA · No public coverage. Ingalls, poultry, furniture — and one area office covering all 82 counties.

• Missouri

  Federal OSHA · No public coverage. A $200K apprentice-electrocution citation, and a voluntary statewide contractor license most locals never see.

• Montana

  Federal OSHA · State-law public program. Mines, co-ops, and vast lone-worker territory — with the Safety Culture Act filling the public-sector gap.

• Nebraska

  Federal OSHA. The only 100% public-power state — which puts every utility’s workers outside OSHA entirely. Center pivots and grain round out the risk map.

• Nevada

  Nevada OSHA Full State Plan. Strip central plants, gold mines, gigafactories — and OSHA-10-by-law on every construction site.

• New Hampshire

  Federal OSHA · State-law public program. One area office, strict state licensing, and RSA 281-A’s written-program duty.

• New Jersey

  PEOSH public-only plan. Pharma, ports, and rail — with contractor licensing, journeyman registration, and five OSHA-record cases.

• New Mexico

  NM OHSB Full State Plan. Permian oilfields, national-lab enclaves, and five cases from the state’s own enforcement records.

• New York

  Public-employee State Plan. PESH and federal OSHA on the same jobsite. No state license — NYC DOB only. NYC is a code cycle behind upstate.

• North Carolina

  Full 18(e) State Plan. Full private and public coverage — with military-base carve-outs. Two fatality cases, and the 2023 NEC indefinitely delayed.

• North Dakota

  Federal OSHA · No public coverage. Bakken, lignite, wind — and one Bismarck office covering it all.

• Ohio

  Federal OSHA · PERRP for public. PERRP is state law, not an OSHA plan. Plus the $222K Willard arc blast and a $1.2B 765-kV transmission buildout.

• Oklahoma

  Federal OSHA · PEOSH for public. Cushing, wind, aviation MRO — and CE that actually includes 70E topics.

• Oregon

  Oregon OSHA Full State Plan. Intel’s fabs, hydro data centers, and a state plan with its own OAR 437 rulebook and five field offices.

• Pennsylvania

  Federal OSHA · No public coverage. 2,562 municipalities, zero statewide license, zero reciprocity — and a UCC review process that keeps the state a cycle behind.

• Rhode Island

  Federal OSHA · No public coverage. Electric Boat’s buildout, offshore wind firsts — and strict A/B licensing with 15-hour CE.

• South Carolina

  SC OSHA Full State Plan. BMW, Boeing, tires, and a port seam — with penalties that historically run below federal levels.

• South Dakota

  Federal OSHA · No public coverage. Smithfield, ethanol, wind — and an IMIS record showing exactly three electrical investigations in a decade.

• Tennessee

  TOSHA Full State Plan. Auto belt, Eastman, FedEx — plus a TVA carve-out most Tennessee employers don’t know exists.

• Texas

  Federal OSHA · No public coverage. Five real cases including the $49,650 Tesla Giga Texas fatality. Nine area offices, TDLR licensing, and the public-sector gap.

• Utah

  UOSH Full State Plan. Silicon Slopes, Bingham Canyon’s MSHA seam, and a five-injury substation arc flash in West Valley City.

• Vermont

  VOSHA Full State Plan. GlobalFoundries, ski-lift plants, dairy stray voltage — and cases sourced from state enforcement records.

• Virginia

  VOSH Full State Plan. The largest data center market on earth, Newport News shipbuilding, and a unique 10-foot overhead-line law.

• Washington

  L&I DOSH Full State Plan. A directive that points inspectors straight at 2027 NFPA 70E, 8,000-hour licensing, and four fully documented cases.

• West Virginia

  Federal OSHA · State-law public program. Chemical Valley, the MSHA seam, and a 995-volt reminder that “low voltage” isn’t.

• Wisconsin

  Federal OSHA · DSPS public program. Paper, cheese, shipyards, Microsoft’s new campus — and five OSHA-record cases with penalties.

• Wyoming

  Wyoming OSHA Full State Plan. The biggest co-op territories and smallest crews in America — where the 2027 additional-person rule is existential.

03How ten bellwether states compare

Every state guide carries its own quick-reference card with the same facts for that state. Two patterns worth sitting with from the bellwethers. First: in five of these ten states, public employees have no OSHA coverage — meaning a municipal lineman, county electrician, or school district maintenance tech works with no enforcement backstop whatsoever. Second: not one of these ten states requires 2027 NFPA 70E work-practice training as a condition of licensure. Every credential in the table certifies installation competence. None certifies that the holder knows how to work safely on what they installed.

Which puts the obligation exactly where the standard puts it — on the employer.

04Every state, kept current

All fifty state guides are now published. Enforcement postures, licensing rules, and code adoptions change constantly — guides are updated as they do, and the Update Watch newsletter announces significant revisions. The 2027 Implementation Guide and the industry guides cover everything that doesn’t vary by state.