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The political differences we see on climate issues globally reflect different cultures and distinct stages of economic development. Just as global treaty negotiations work to bridge the divide between nations, Americans need to renew our search for common ground. For most of the 21st century, our national politics has been about how we differ. With the phrase "climate change" disappearing from U.S. federal government websites and increased talk of regulatory overreach, it is obvious that protecting the environment will continue to be a fault line in American political ideology. While there are plenty of examples of environmental regulations being administered with rigidity and inflexibility, there are far more examples of accommodation and a process that provides plenty of time for businesses and localities to comply with environmental standards.

WE NEED CHEAP, RELIABLE, SAFE RENEWABLE ENERGY Across the world we all inhabit, the economic system that we depend on is based on the one-time use of fossil fuels and other material resources. Our planet's population has grown to over 7 billion people. We simply cannot continue using up materials and dumping the waste into a hole in the ground; we need to develop and deploy the technology to create a renewable resource-based economy. The future wellbeing of the United States, and of the planet as a whole, depends on the US government playing a more strategic and future-oriented role to bring about the transition to a renewable-resource-based economy. We know that we must transition to renewable energy eventually, but with energy technology advancing every decade, why hasn't the transformation to a renewable economy happened yet? What is preventing a more fundamental shift in our energy production and use? There are three barriers to this transformation: (1) technologies that still need advancing; (2) infrastructure that is not designed for distributed generation; and (3) complicated political challenges that limit our ability to make the tough choices necessary for long-term energy policies. The public sector is critical in the transition to a sustainable global economy. Smart sustainability policy and management can help the United States and other countries move past technological, market, and political barriers, and there are a range of federal policies that could lead us on the path toward a sustainable economy powered by clean energy.

After decades at the periphery of political and business agendas, sustainability and environmental protection have emerged at the center of our economic and political dialogue. Steven Cohen argues that increasingly, an organisation's ability to achieve sustainability is seen as an indicator of a well-run organisation.

Whether a function should be performed within or outside government is a very broad issue that relates to personal values and views concerning the relationship between individual and state, as well as a complex set of management issues. Without trying to answer those questions here, this article begins from the premise that a particular function has been judged by the political process to be the responsibility of government. The article seeks to develop an approach for government managers to use when deciding whether to perform the function directly in-house or to perform the function indirectly through the use of a non-governmental organization. The first part of this article begins by delineating distinguishing characteristics of government, nonprofit, and private organizations, and then assesses the degree to which those characteristics impede or facilitate the performance of public functions. The article then develops a framework and a method for making privatization decisions. The decision to privatize requires strategic thinking; this article provides an example of how a strategic framework might be applied by analyzing the issues that would be faced in privatizing a key element of New York City's homeless program.

Solar energy use has grown substantially in recent years both in the United States and globally. The first solar battery was developed in 1954 by Bell Labs, and large scale solar plants began popping up in the 1980s and 1990s, but it wasn't until the early 2000s that solar technology gained significantly in popularity. Two factors made this possible: a) new financial models that made solar technology more affordable and b) government subsidies for solar energy.

A growing partisan divide in Congress stalled almost all new federal climate policy in 2011. The divide frustrated efforts to pass a cap-and-trade carbon permitting system, spawned a battle between the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Congress, pushed most substantive climate change policy down to the municipal level and hindered US ability to effectively negotiate an international climate agreement. Amid the federal partisan wrangling, US cities have enacted far-sighted climate policy initiatives, and the growing cost of fossil fuels has stimulated investment in renewable energy, edging the country closer to commercially viable alternatives to fossil fuels. These trends could help provide an alternate route to climate mitigation, even without international treaties or national legislation. But the inevitable shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources would be greatly hastened by federal action to tax carbon dioxide emissions and use the revenue generate! d to support alternative energy technologies. That action is extremely unlikely to occur unless climate change comes to be seen in the United States as a practical, rather than ideological, issue.

This study provides an in-depth management and policy analysis of the independent contractor model in the modern U.S. economy. We pay extensive attention to the complex issue of misclassifying employees as contractors, a minor, but salient issue on the nation's political and regulatory agenda. The report is divided into three sections: • Part I discusses the independent contracting model and relevant issues of organizational management. • Part II analyzes most common types of independent contractors, varied across industries and varied by size and discusses the complex policy and legal environment that independent contractors operate under in the United States. • Part III concludes with a discussion of independent contracting's place in the current and future U.S. economy amid recently heightened national scrutiny and includes a discussion of best practices for companies who engage with independent contractors.

Governments have begun to use the World Wide Web to assist in service delivery. This includes, but goes far beyond, the dissemination of information to the general public and involves a variety of other governmental functions. In reviewing some government websites it is clear that the use of the web for service delivery is still in its infancy. The types of services that can be delivered through the web are still in the process of being imagined and organized by both government and the private sector. Over the next decade we can expect to see a great deal of experimentation and organizational learn- ing in this area. The purpose of this report is to accelerate this learning process by studying several noteworthy current government efforts to use the web for interactive functions. The methodology of this study is to select a number of illustrative case studies on the use of e-commerce and the Internet in government service delivery and communications. The study includes a content analysis of selected state, local, and federal government websites and, where available, an analysis of the costs and benefits of switching to web-based service delivery. We selected cases in Alaska, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, the city of Boston, Florida, Indiana, and Texas. We discuss the lessons learned from these cases and their broader implications for government service delivery. Then we provide a checklist of the steps that governments should take when using the Internet to deliver government service. Finally, we present background on the websites we reviewed, discuss the development and implementation of the site, and analyze its costs and benefits.

This paper provides a broad overview of five perspectives on the public service ethics agenda, incorporating a current debate which may well emerge as the initial reform agenda of the new millennium. Perspectives explored include the politics/administration dichotomy, the New Public Administration's emphasis on individual responsibility in the context of strong organizational values and norms, the ethical risks of public entrepreneurship, and the recent emergence of spiritualism as a guide to public ethical decision-making. The authors conclude that we are entering a new era of public ethics where performance and morality will be accorded equal priority. They argue that public entrepreneurship is increasingly essential to meet the public's demands for government that works better and costs less. Most public officials will need on-the-job training and/or ethics courses in schools of public policy and administration to competently assess the ethical risks and dangers that a particular policy innovation may encompass.

As the twentieth century comes to a close, ethics is returning to the public sector reform agenda. Just as it was at the turn of this century the current focus is on the administrative branch of government. Then, as now, scandals involving elected officials prompted the reform initiatives. However, today there is far less consensus on the most appropriate elements of the reform agenda, perhaps reflecting a century of less than successful ethically-driven reforms.

Solid waste management is a challenge for large urban areas around the world. Removing garbage from residential, institutional and commercial locations in cities is a major logistical and operational task. Waste management is usually a function of local government, and is often a city's largest budget item. Solid waste generation rates are rising fast, particularly in cities experiencing increasing population rates and higher economic activity, putting pressure on municipal governments to deal with rising costs and environmental impacts. This case study examines waste management practices in three cities: New York City, Hong Kong and Beijing. We begin by assessing New York City to provide an overview of waste management practices in a large, complex U.S. city. We then focus on Hong Kong, and finally on Beijing, to provide detail on the waste management practices of two major Chinese cities and learn how they are dealing with the growing volume of waste generated by these large cities. In each of the three cases we describe the history of waste management in that locale, the status of waste management today, and discuss the challenges faced in each location. Finally, we compare the practices in these cities, and detail the technical, managerial and political issues that define the waste management system in each place.

The destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, resulted in a rapid response by government to evaluate the area and, in subsequent days, to bring the city back to a semblance of normalcy. This article provides a case study of government action in New York city during and after the World Trade Center catastrophe. What is most striking is the skill and intensity of government's response to the emergency and the hard work, dedication, and bravery of New York City's government officials. This article presents government and public service at its finest, under some of the most difficult conditions one can imagine.

Under former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, New York City adopted one of the most aggressive sustainability policies in U.S. government. Responding to the needs of future New Yorkers, the city analyzed its anticipated growth, the growth rate of services required to meet the needs of a growing population, and the impact of that population on aging infrastructure, and developed a sustainability roadmap that has served as a model for cities around the world.

The global demand for energy is predicted to increase by as much as 40% by 2030 (EIA, 2016). To meet future energy needs of the growing global population, the world needs to transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy. Of the available renewable energy sources, solar power is one of the most promising options for the future, and has a key role to play in the ongoing transition to a sustainable economy. Solar energy use has grown substantially in recent years, both in the United States and globally. Bell Labs developed the first solar battery in 1954; and large-scale solar plants began to appear in the 1980s and 1990s, but it wasn't until the early 2000s that solar technology gained significant popularity. Three factors made this possible: a) advances in solar technology, b) new financial models that made solar technology more affordable and c) strong government policies to support solar energy. This case study examines the growth of solar and renewable energy worldwide, and discusses general barriers to implementing solar. It will then examine policies that support and incentivize solar energy in three cities: New York City, Hong Kong and Freiburg, Germany. We describe the history and background on sustainability and energy policies in each city, examine the major local barriers to solar, and the drivers of renewable energy policy in each place.