Changing the State of State-Level Energy Programs: Policy Diffusion, Economic Stimulus, and New Federalism Paradigms
Abstract
This article will pose the question: What led to the climate and
clean energy policies in Massachusetts, Minnesota, Texas, and Utah
(four states for which current or former governors ran for president in
the 2012 election) and around the country since 2001? It will highlight
the role of governors and the $3.1 billion investment of federal resources
into state-level clean energy activities through the Recovery Act as a
foundation for assessment and will provide a framework for analyzing
policy decision-making. Public policy theory, including the policy dif-
fusion model, will provide background to understand the influences on
state-level policy adoption. With the primary goal of the Recovery Act
to improve a struggling economy, this article will explore the critical
connection between economic development and clean energy resources
that impacted these choices under expedited procedures. In addition,
the approach to clean energy policy will show changes in American
federalism and the potential of polycentric governance. While it is a
unique confluence of events that led to the current policy environment,
the results of further study will provide generalizable information on
state-level learning, policy-motivations, economic decision-making,
procedures in environmental policy, and the relationships of actors at
multiple levels of governance. In a dissenting Supreme opinion in 1932,
Justice Louis Brandies wrote, “A single courageous state may, if its citi-
zens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic
experiments without risk to the rest of the country. ... ” This article
and proposed research program will analyze the policy experiments in
states across the country—often led through gubernatorial initiative—
in tackling the interrelated challenges of climate change and energy
security in the twenty-first century.
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