Political opportunities for climate policy: California, New York, and the federal government

Introduction and overview -- Climate policies in the United States -- Theories of climate policy -- The structural theory applied to the cases -- Causes of climate policies in the fifty states -- California : air-pollution and energy policy making (the 1940s to the 1980s) -- California : climate policy making (the 2000s to the present) -- New York State : energy and climate policy making -- Federal government : energy and climate policy making -- Conclusions : political opportunities for climate policy in the United States.

Analysis of climate change policies focuses mainly on the prospects for international agreements or how climate policies should be designed. Yet effective domestic climate policies are essential to any global solution, and we know too little about how and why such policies are adopted. Political Opportunities for Climate Policy examines in depth the causes of effective climate policies in the United States, using a statistical analysis of all fifty states and long-term case studies of California, New York, and the federal government. Roger Karapin analyzes twenty-two episodes in which policies were adopted, blocked, or reversed. He shows that actors and events have positively affected climate policy making, despite the constraints presented by political institutions and powerful fossil fuel industries. Climate policy advocates have succeeded when they mobilized vigorously and astutely during windows of opportunity - which opened when events converged to raise both problem awareness and the political commitment to address them