IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aen/journl/ej36-2-05.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Factors affecting the rise of renewable energy in the U.S.: Concern over environmental quality or rising unemployment?

Author

Listed:
  • Adrienne M. Ohler

Abstract

This paper studies the development of renewable energy (RE) in the U.S. by examining the capacity to generate electricity from renewable sources. RE capacity exhibits a U-shaped relationship with per capita income, similar to other metrics for environmental quality (EQ). To explain this phenomenon, I consider several of the environmental Kuznets curve theories that describe the relationship between income and environmental quality (Y-EQ), including evolving property rights, increased demand for improved EQ, and changing economic composition. The results fail to provide support for the Y-EQ theories. I further consider the alternative hypothesis that increases in unemployment lead to increases in relative RE capacity, suggesting that promoting RE projects as a potential job creator is one of the main drivers of RE projects. The results imply that lagged unemployment is a significant predictor of relative RE capacity, particularly for states with a large manufacturing share of GDP.

Suggested Citation

  • Adrienne M. Ohler, 2015. "Factors affecting the rise of renewable energy in the U.S.: Concern over environmental quality or rising unemployment?," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    • Handle: RePEc:aen:journl:ej36-2-05
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.iaee.org/en/publications/ejarticle.aspx?id=2609
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to IAEE members and subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sanya Carley, 2012. "A Clean Energy Standard: Experience from the States," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 29(2), pages 301-307, March.
    2. António Marques & José Fuinhas & José Manso, 2011. "A Quantile Approach to Identify Factors Promoting Renewable Energy in European Countries," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 49(3), pages 351-366, July.
    3. Richard Green & Adonis Yatchew, 2012. "Support Schemes for Renewable Energy: An Economic Analysis," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    4. Menegaki, Angeliki N., 2011. "Growth and renewable energy in Europe: A random effect model with evidence for neutrality hypothesis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 257-263, March.
    5. Burke, Paul J., 2010. "Income, resources, and electricity mix," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 616-626, May.
    6. Huang, Ming-Yuan & Alavalapati, Janaki R.R. & Carter, Douglas R. & Langholtz, Matthew H., 2007. "Is the choice of renewable portfolio standards random?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 5571-5575, November.
    7. Ewing, Bradley T. & Payne, James E. & Caporin, Massimilano, 2022. "The Asymmetric Impact of Oil Prices and Production on Drilling Rig Trajectory: A correction," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    8. Apergis, Nicholas & Payne, James E., 2010. "Renewable energy consumption and growth in Eurasia," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1392-1397, November.
    9. Stern, David I. & Common, Michael S., 2001. "Is There an Environmental Kuznets Curve for Sulfur?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 162-178, March.
    10. Andreoni, James & Levinson, Arik, 2001. "The simple analytics of the environmental Kuznets curve," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 269-286, May.
    11. Stern, David I., 2004. "The Rise and Fall of the Environmental Kuznets Curve," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1419-1439, August.
    12. Richard Schmalensee & Thomas M. Stoker & Ruth A. Judson, 1998. "World Carbon Dioxide Emissions: 1950-2050," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(1), pages 15-27, February.
    13. Nektarios Aslanidis & Susana Iranzo, 2009. "Environment and development: is there a Kuznets curve for CO2 emissions?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(6), pages 803-810.
    14. Madlener, Reinhard & Stagl, Sigrid, 2005. "Sustainability-guided promotion of renewable electricity generation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 147-167, April.
    15. Cole, M.A. & Rayner, A.J. & Bates, J.M., 1997. "The environmental Kuznets curve: an empirical analysis," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(4), pages 401-416, November.
    16. Panayotou, Theodore, 1999. "The economics of environments in transition," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(4), pages 401-412, October.
    17. Suri, Vivek & Chapman, Duane, 1998. "Economic growth, trade and energy: implications for the environmental Kuznets curve," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 195-208, May.
    18. Sadorsky, Perry, 2009. "Renewable energy consumption and income in emerging economies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 4021-4028, October.
    19. Dong, C.G., 2012. "Feed-in tariff vs. renewable portfolio standard: An empirical test of their relative effectiveness in promoting wind capacity development," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 476-485.
    20. Yin, Haitao & Powers, Nicholas, 2010. "Do state renewable portfolio standards promote in-state renewable generation[glottal stop]," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 1140-1149, February.
    21. Thomas P. Lyon & Haitao Yin, 2010. "Why Do States Adopt Renewable Portfolio Standards?: An Empirical Investigation," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 133-158.
    22. Long, James E., 1993. "An econometric analysis of residential expenditures on energy conservation and renewable energy sources," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 232-238, October.
    23. Wei, Max & Patadia, Shana & Kammen, Daniel M., 2010. "Putting renewables and energy efficiency to work: How many jobs can the clean energy industry generate in the US?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 919-931, February.
    24. Carlo Andrea Bollino, 2009. "The Willingness to Pay for Renewable Energy Sources: The Case of Italy with Socio-demographic Determinants," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 81-96.
    25. Fischer, Carolyn & Preonas, Louis, 2010. "Combining Policies for Renewable Energy: Is the Whole Less Than the Sum of Its Parts?," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 4(1), pages 51-92, June.
    26. Menz, Fredric C. & Vachon, Stephan, 2006. "The effectiveness of different policy regimes for promoting wind power: Experiences from the states," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(14), pages 1786-1796, September.
    27. Rothman, Dale S., 1998. "Environmental Kuznets curves--real progress or passing the buck?: A case for consumption-based approaches," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 177-194, May.
    28. Susmita Dasgupta & Benoit Laplante & Hua Wang & David Wheeler, 2002. "Confronting the Environmental Kuznets Curve," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 16(1), pages 147-168, Winter.
    29. Bhattacharya, Haimanti & Lueck, Dean, 2009. "The role of property rights in determining the environmental quality-income relationship," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(10), pages 2511-2524, August.
    30. Tahvonen, Olli & Salo, Seppo, 2001. "Economic growth and transitions between renewable and nonrenewable energy resources," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(8), pages 1379-1398, August.
    31. Marques, António Cardoso & Fuinhas, José Alberto, 2012. "Are public policies towards renewables successful? Evidence from European countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 109-118.
    32. Carley, Sanya, 2009. "State renewable energy electricity policies: An empirical evaluation of effectiveness," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 3071-3081, August.
    33. Delmas, Magali A. & Montes-Sancho, Maria J., 2011. "U.S. state policies for renewable energy: Context and effectiveness," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 2273-2288, May.
    34. Steffen Jenner, Gabriel Chan, Rolf Frankenberger, and Mathias Gabel, 2012. "What Drives States to Support Renewable Energy?," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    35. Oliver, Henry & Volschenk, Jako & Smit, Eon, 2011. "Residential consumers in the Cape Peninsula's willingness to pay for premium priced green electricity," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 544-550, February.
    36. Dinda, Soumyananda, 2004. "Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis: A Survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 431-455, August.
    37. Bergmann, Ariel & Colombo, Sergio & Hanley, Nick, 2008. "Rural versus urban preferences for renewable energy developments," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 616-625, April.
    38. Cropper, Maureen & Griffiths, Charles, 1994. "The Interaction of Population Growth and Environmental Quality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 250-254, May.
    39. Richard T. Carson, 2010. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve: Seeking Empirical Regularity and Theoretical Structure," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 4(1), pages 3-23, Winter.
    40. Wiser, Ryan & Porter, Kevin & Clemmer, Steve, 2000. "Emerging Markets for Renewable Energy: The Role of State Policies during Restructuring," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 13-24.
    41. Apergis, Nicholas & Payne, James E., 2011. "The renewable energy consumption-growth nexus in Central America," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 343-347, January.
    42. Shrimali, Gireesh & Kniefel, Joshua, 2011. "Are government policies effective in promoting deployment of renewable electricity resources?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 4726-4741, September.
    43. Sari, Ramazan & Ewing, Bradley T. & Soytas, Ugur, 2008. "The relationship between disaggregate energy consumption and industrial production in the United States: An ARDL approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 2302-2313, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Ying & Zhang, Dayong & Ji, Qiang & Shi, Xunpeng, 2020. "Regional renewable energy development in China: A multidimensional assessment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    2. Seetharaman, A. & Sandanaraj, Lourdu Leo & Moorthy, M. Krishna & Saravanan, A.S., 2016. "Enterprise framework for renewable energy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 1368-1381.
    3. Mar'ia Jos'e Presno & Manuel Landajo, 2024. "EU-28's progress towards the 2020 renewable energy share. A club convergence analysis," Papers 2402.00788, arXiv.org.
    4. Zhao, Xu & Luo, Dongkun, 2017. "Driving force of rising renewable energy in China: Environment, regulation and employment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 68(P1), pages 48-56.
    5. Meng-jieu Chen, 2017. "Job versus environment: an examination on the attitude of union members toward environmental spending," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 19(4), pages 761-788, October.
    6. Yu-Xia Tu & Oleksandr Kubatko & Vladyslav Piven & Iryna Sotnyk & Tetiana Kurbatova, 2022. "Determinants of Renewable Energy Development: Evidence from the EU Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-14, September.
    7. Thomas, Pinky & Khurana, Ritika & Etienne, Xiaoli L. & Collins, Alan R., 2023. "The Impacts of State Policies on Renewable Energy Generation Capacity: A County-Level Spatial Panel Analysis," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 335717, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    8. Goetzke, Frank & Rave, Tilmann, 2016. "Exploring heterogeneous growth of wind energy across Germany," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 193-205.
    9. Consolación Quintana-Rojo & Fernando-Evaristo Callejas-Albiñana & Miguel-Ángel Tarancón & Isabel Martínez-Rodríguez, 2020. "Econometric Studies on the Development of Renewable Energy Sources to Support the European Union 2020–2030 Climate and Energy Framework: A Critical Appraisal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-26, June.
    10. Amedeo Argentiero, Tarek Atalla, Simona Bigerna, Silvia Micheli, and Paolo Polinori, 2017. "Comparing Renewable Energy Policies in EU-15, U.S. and China: A Bayesian DSGE Model," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(KAPSARC S).
    11. Shang, Yunfeng & Han, Ding & Gozgor, Giray & Mahalik, Mantu Kumar & Sahoo, Bimal Kishore, 2022. "The impact of climate policy uncertainty on renewable and non-renewable energy demand in the United States," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 654-667.
    12. Xu, Shengqing, 2021. "The paradox of the energy revolution in China: A socio-technical transition perspective," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    13. Haider Mahmood & Muhammad Shahid Hassan & Soumen Rej & Maham Furqan, 2023. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve and Renewable Energy Consumption: A Review," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 13(3), pages 279-291, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. kos Hamburger & G bor Harangoz, 2018. "Factors Affecting the Evolution of Renewable Electricity Generating Capacities: A Panel Data Analysis of European Countries," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 8(5), pages 161-172.
    2. Roxana Pincheira & Felipe Zuniga, 2021. "Environmental Kuznets curve bibliographic map: a systematic literature review," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(S1), pages 1931-1956, April.
    3. Jenner, Steffen & Groba, Felix & Indvik, Joe, 2013. "Assessing the strength and effectiveness of renewable electricity feed-in tariffs in European Union countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 385-401.
    4. Basher, Syed Abul & Masini, Andrea & Aflaki, Sam, 2015. "Time series properties of the renewable energy diffusion process: Implications for energy policy design and assessment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 1680-1692.
    5. Fernández-Amador, Octavio & Francois, Joseph F. & Oberdabernig, Doris A. & Tomberger, Patrick, 2017. "Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Economic Growth: An Assessment Based on Production and Consumption Emission Inventories," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 269-279.
    6. Bilgili, Faik & Kuşkaya, Sevda & Toğuç, Nurhan & Muğaloğlu, Erhan & Koçak, Emrah & Bulut, Ümit & Bağlıtaş, H. Hilal, 2019. "A revisited renewable consumption-growth nexus: A continuous wavelet approach through disaggregated data," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 1-19.
    7. Nicolini, Marcella & Tavoni, Massimo, 2017. "Are renewable energy subsidies effective? Evidence from Europe," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 412-423.
    8. Sabuj Kumar Mandal & Devleena Chakravarty, 2017. "Role of energy in estimating turning point of Environmental Kuznets Curve: an econometric analysis of the existing studies," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 19(2), pages 387-401, October.
    9. Tiba, Sofien & Omri, Anis, 2017. "Literature survey on the relationships between energy, environment and economic growth," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 1129-1146.
    10. Kahia, Montassar & Ben Aissa, Mohamed Safouane & kadria, Mohamed, 2014. "Do renewable energy policies promote economic growth? A nonparametric approach," MPRA Paper 80751, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Gosens, Jorrit & Hedenus, Fredrik & Sandén, Björn A., 2017. "Faster market growth of wind and PV in late adopters due to global experience build-up," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 267-278.
    12. Gireesh Shrimali & Steffen Jenner & Felix Groba & Gabriel Chan & Joe Indvik, 2012. "Have State Renewable Portfolio Standards Really Worked?: Synthesizing Past Policy Assessments," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1258, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    13. Jie He, 2007. "Is the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis valid for developing countries? A survey," Cahiers de recherche 07-03, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    14. Dinda, Soumyananda, 2004. "Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis: A Survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 431-455, August.
    15. Alexandra-Anca Purcel, 2020. "New insights into the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in developing and transition economies: a literature survey," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 22(4), pages 585-631, October.
    16. Valeria Costantini & Chiara Martini, 2010. "A Modified Environmental Kuznets Curve for sustainable development assessment using panel data," International Journal of Global Environmental Issues, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 10(1/2), pages 84-122.
    17. Alvarez-Herranz, Agustin & Balsalobre-Lorente, Daniel & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Cantos, José María, 2017. "Energy innovation and renewable energy consumption in the correction of air pollution levels," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 386-397.
    18. Gireesh Shrimali, Gabriel Chan, Steffen Jenner, Felix Groba and Joe Indvik, 2015. "Evaluating Renewable Portfolio Standards for In-State Renewable Deployment: Accounting for Policy Heterogeneity," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    19. Escoffier, Margaux & Hache, Emmanuel & Mignon, Valérie & Paris, Anthony, 2021. "Determinants of solar photovoltaic deployment in the electricity mix: Do oil prices really matter?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    20. Barnea, Gil & Hagemann, Christian & Wurster, Stefan, 2022. "Policy instruments matter: Support schemes for renewable energy capacity in worldwide comparison," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F0 - International Economics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aen:journl:ej36-2-05. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: David Williams (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iaeeeea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.