IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v138y2020ics0301421519307967.html

What drives climate policy adoption in the U.S. states?

Author

Listed:
  • Trachtman, Samuel

Abstract

Climate advocates increasingly view state policy as a crucial tool to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. However, the literature lacks systematic empirical analysis of which, when, and why states adopt policies mitigating climate change. While traditional climate federalism highlights the co-benefits to climate policies in driving subnational policy decisions, more recent work emphasizes the powerful role of partisan control of office. I collect and analyze panel data measuring the strength of state policy from 2007 to 2014 in four areas: renewable portfolio standards, distributed generation, energy efficiency, and severance taxes on oil and gas extraction. While renewable portfolio standards and distributed generation policies were driven primarily by Democratic partisanship in state electorates, energy efficiency policies were less responsive to Democratic partisanship but marginally responsive to unified Democratic control of state government. Finally, these political factors did not measurably influence state severance taxes.

Suggested Citation

  • Trachtman, Samuel, 2020. "What drives climate policy adoption in the U.S. states?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:138:y:2020:i:c:s0301421519307967
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2019.111214
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421519307967
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2019.111214?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Berry, Michael J. & Laird, Frank N. & Stefes, Christoph H., 2015. "Driving energy: the enactment and ambitiousness of state renewable energy policy," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(2), pages 297-328, August.
    2. Barry G. Rabe, 2008. "States on Steroids: The Intergovernmental Odyssey of American Climate Policy," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 25(2), pages 105-128, March.
    3. Weber, Jeremy G. & Wang, Yongsheng & Chomas, Maxwell, 2016. "A quantitative description of state-level taxation of oil and gas production in the continental U.S," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 289-301.
    4. Stern, David I., 2004. "The Rise and Fall of the Environmental Kuznets Curve," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1419-1439, August.
    5. Carley, Sanya & Nicholson-Crotty, Sean & Miller, Chris J., 2017. "Adoption, reinvention and amendment of renewable portfolio standards in the American states," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(4), pages 431-458, December.
    6. Hongtao Yi & Richard C. Feiock, 2012. "Policy Tool Interactions and the Adoption of State Renewable Portfolio Standards," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 29(2), pages 193-206, March.
    7. 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.
    8. repec:aen:journl:2010v31-03-a07 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. 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.
    10. Chandler, Jess, 2009. "Trendy solutions: Why do states adopt Sustainable Energy Portfolio Standards?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 3274-3281, August.
    11. Sanya Carley & Lincoln L. Davies & David B. Spence & Nikolaos Zirogiannis, 2019. "Author Correction: Empirical evaluation of the stringency and design of renewable portfolio standards," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 4(2), pages 167-168, February.
    12. Caughey, Devin & Warshaw, Christopher, 2018. "Policy Preferences and Policy Change: Dynamic Responsiveness in the American States, 1936–2014," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 112(2), pages 249-266, May.
    13. Stokes, Leah C. & Breetz, Hanna L., 2018. "Politics in the U.S. energy transition: Case studies of solar, wind, biofuels and electric vehicles policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 76-86.
    14. Carley, Sanya, 2009. "Distributed generation: An empirical analysis of primary motivators," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 1648-1659, May.
    15. Barry G. Rabe & Rachel L. Hampton, 2015. "Taxing Fracking: The Politics of State Severance Taxes in the Shale Era," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 32(4), pages 389-412, July.
    16. Sung Eun Kim & Johannes Urpelainen, 2017. "The Polarization of American Environmental Policy: A Regression Discontinuity Analysis of Senate and House Votes, 1971–2013," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 34(4), pages 456-484, July.
    17. Bell, Andrew & Jones, Kelvyn, 2015. "Explaining Fixed Effects: Random Effects Modeling of Time-Series Cross-Sectional and Panel Data," Political Science Research and Methods, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(1), pages 133-153, January.
    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. Wittstock, Nicolas, 2025. "The governmental origins of American innovation in clean technologies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    2. Qin, Meng & Su, Yun Hsuan & Zhao, Zhengtang & Mirza, Nawazish, 2023. "The politics of climate: Does factionalism impede U.S. carbon neutrality?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 954-966.
    3. Erkan Erdogdu, 2025. "Restructuring energy markets for net-zero: the role of market-based solutions," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 1-40, April.
    4. Barry D. Solomon & Shan Zhou, 2021. "Renewable Portfolio Standards: Do Voluntary Goals vs. Mandatory Standards Make a Difference?," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 38(2), pages 146-163, March.
    5. Joshua A. Basseches & Rebecca Bromley-Trujillo & Maxwell T. Boykoff & Trevor Culhane & Galen Hall & Noel Healy & David J. Hess & David Hsu & Rachel M. Krause & Harland Prechel & J. Timmons Roberts & J, 2022. "Climate policy conflict in the U.S. states: a critical review and way forward," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 170(3), pages 1-24, February.
    6. Trachtman, Samuel & Inal, Irem & Meckling, Jonas, 2025. "Building winning climate coalitions: Evidence from U.S. states," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    7. Guesmi, Khaled & Makrychoriti, Panagiota & Spyrou, Spyros, 2023. "The relationship between climate risk, climate policy uncertainty, and CO2 emissions: Empirical evidence from the US," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 610-628.
    8. Samuel Trachtman & Jonas Meckling, 2022. "The climate advocacy gap," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 172(3), pages 1-7, June.
    9. Ji, Yuhang & Lei, Yalin & Li, Li & Zhang, An & Wu, Sanmang & Li, Qun, 2021. "Evaluation of the implementation effects and the influencing factors of resource tax in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    10. Brown, Marilyn A. & Kale, Snehal & Cha, Min-Kyeong & Chapman, Oliver, 2023. "Exploring the willingness of consumers to electrify their homes," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 338(C).
    11. Lange, Ian & Maniloff, Peter, 2021. "Updating allowance allocations in cap-and-trade: Evidence from the NOx Budget Program," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).

    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. Rountree, Valerie, 2019. "Nevada's experience with the Renewable Portfolio Standard," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 279-291.
    2. Zhou, Shan & Solomon, Barry D., 2020. "Do renewable portfolio standards in the United States stunt renewable electricity development beyond mandatory targets?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    3. Yi, Hongtao, 2015. "Clean-energy policies and electricity sector carbon emissions in the U.S. states," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 19-29.
    4. Sojin Jang & Hongtao Yi, 2022. "Organized elite power and clean energy: A study of negative policy experimentations with renewable portfolio standards," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 39(1), pages 8-31, January.
    5. Samuel Trachtman, 2019. "Building Climate Policy in the States," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 685(1), pages 96-114, September.
    6. Michael Lerner, 2022. "Local power: Understanding the adoption and design of county wind energy regulation," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 39(2), pages 120-142, March.
    7. Sojin Jang, 2022. "After the adoption of Renewable Portfolio Standards: Go greener or back to grey?," Energy & Environment, , vol. 33(8), pages 1545-1561, December.
    8. Barry D. Solomon & Shan Zhou, 2021. "Renewable Portfolio Standards: Do Voluntary Goals vs. Mandatory Standards Make a Difference?," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 38(2), pages 146-163, March.
    9. Lerner, Michael, 2022. "Local power: understanding the adoption and design of county wind energy regulation," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 112757, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Pritchard, Zachary D. & Mills, Sarah, 2021. "Renewable energy requirements on the ballot: An analysis of county-level voting results," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 148(PA).
    11. Schumacher, Kim & Yang, Zhuoxiang, 2018. "The determinants of wind energy growth in the United States: Drivers and barriers to state-level development," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 1-13.
    12. Youhyun Lee & Inseok Seo, 2019. "Sustainability of a Policy Instrument: Rethinking the Renewable Portfolio Standard in South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-19, May.
    13. Parrish Bergquist & Christopher Warshaw, 2023. "How climate policy commitments influence energy systems and the economies of US states," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    14. Don Fullerton & Chi L. Ta, 2025. "What Determines Effectiveness of Renewable Energy Standards? General Equilibrium Analytical Model and Empirical Analysis," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 12(1), pages 65-103.
    15. Neal D. Woods, 2021. "The State of State Environmental Policy Research: A Thirty‐Year Progress Report," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 38(3), pages 347-369, May.
    16. Saatvika Rai, 2020. "Policy Adoption and Policy Intensity: Emergence of Climate Adaptation Planning in U.S. States," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 37(4), pages 444-463, July.
    17. Wei, Shuni & Yuan, Peng & Yu, Renjie, 2025. "Can renewable portfolio standard promote renewable energy capacity utilization? Empirical evidence from China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    18. Daniel J Pastor, 2020. "The effects of renewables portfolio standards on renewable energy generation," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(3), pages 2121-2133.
    19. Karen Maguire & Abdul Munasib, 2016. "The Disparate Influence of State Renewable Portfolio Standards on Renewable Electricity Generation Capacity," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 92(3), pages 468-490.
    20. Polzin, Friedemann & Egli, Florian & Steffen, Bjarne & Schmidt, Tobias S., 2019. "How do policies mobilize private finance for renewable energy?—A systematic review with an investor perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C), pages 1249-1268.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:eee:enepol:v:138:y:2020:i:c:s0301421519307967. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    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.