IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/enejou/v36y2015i2p97-116.html

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, , vol. 36(2), pages 97-116, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:enejou:v:36:y:2015:i:2:p:97-116
    DOI: 10.5547/01956574.36.2.5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5547/01956574.36.2.5
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5547/01956574.36.2.5?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. Apergis, Nicholas & Payne, James E., 2012. "Renewable and non-renewable energy consumption-growth nexus: Evidence from a panel error correction model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 733-738.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    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. 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.

    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. repec:aen:journl:ej36-2-05 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. 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).
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Meng Yan & Kai Shi, 2021. "Evidence on clean energy consumption and business cycle: A global perspective," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 45(3), pages 230-255, August.
    6. Jeremy Nguyen & Abbas Valadkhani & Gholamreza Hajargasht, 2021. "The Choice between Renewables and Non-renewables: Evidence from Electricity Generation in 29 Countries," The Energy Journal, , vol. 42(6), pages 49-68, November.
    7. Ranjan Aneja & Umer J. Banday & Tanzeem Hasnat & Mustafa Koçoglu, 2017. "Renewable and Non-renewable Energy Consumption and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from Panel Error Correction Model," Jindal Journal of Business Research, , vol. 6(1), pages 76-85, June.
    8. Mesbah Fathy SHARAF, 2017. "Energy consumption and economic growth in Egypt: A disaggregated causality analysis with structural breaks," Region et Developpement, Region et Developpement, LEAD, Universite du Sud - Toulon Var, vol. 46, pages 59-76.
    9. 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.
    10. Pao, Hsiao-Tien & Fu, Hsin-Chia, 2013. "The causal relationship between energy resources and economic growth in Brazil," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 793-801.
    11. Boulanouar, Zakaria & Essid, Lobna & Farid, Saqib & Ben Mahjoub, Lassaad, 2025. "Asymmetric threshold effects of economic growth on renewable energy in response to energy price fluctuations," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 31(C).
    12. 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.
    13. Betencourt, Matilde & Fuinhas, José Alberto, 2025. "The impact of dynamic capital formation in energy transition: Empirical evidence from the European Union," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 335(C).
    14. Matheus Koengkan & José Alberto Fuinhas, 2022. "The Interactions Between Renewable Energy Consumption, Economic Growth, and Globalisation: Fresh Evidence from the Mercosur Countries," Springer Books, in: Globalisation and Energy Transition in Latin America and the Caribbean, chapter 0, pages 63-99, Springer.
    15. Zafar, Muhammad Wasif & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Hou, Fujun & Sinha, Avik, 2018. "¬¬¬¬¬¬From Nonrenewable to Renewable Energy and Its Impact on Economic Growth: Silver Line of Research & Development Expenditures in APEC Countries," MPRA Paper 90611, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 10 Dec 2018.
    16. Daniel Ştefan Armeanu & Georgeta Vintilă & Ştefan Cristian Gherghina, 2017. "Does Renewable Energy Drive Sustainable Economic Growth? Multivariate Panel Data Evidence for EU-28 Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-21, March.
    17. Balsalobre-Lorente, Daniel & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Roubaud, David & Farhani, Sahbi, 2018. "How economic growth, renewable electricity and natural resources contribute to CO2 emissions?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 356-367.
    18. 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.
    19. Marques, António Cardoso & Fuinhas, José Alberto & Menegaki, Angeliki N., 2014. "Interactions between electricity generation sources and economic activity in Greece: A VECM approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 34-46.
    20. Adams, Samuel & Klobodu, Edem Kwame Mensah & Apio, Alfred, 2018. "Renewable and non-renewable energy, regime type and economic growth," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 755-767.
    21. Marius-Corneliu Marinaș & Marin Dinu & Aura-Gabriela Socol & Cristian Socol, 2018. "Renewable energy consumption and economic growth. Causality relationship in Central and Eastern European countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(10), pages 1-29, October.

    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:sae:enejou:v:36:y:2015:i:2:p:97-116. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.