Suchergebnisse

Renewable energy has become a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States with the assistance of billions of dollars in state and federal financial incentives. As renewable energy continues to be discussed as the future of our electrical energy, this topic will become increasingly important in the years to come. To help this young industry, state governments have adopted several hundred policies that are designed to encourage the installation of renewable energy systems. With billions of dollars on the line, it is important to understand what influences the adoption of these policies. While examining the adoption of the twenty-two different types of renewable energy policies that states have adopted, I implement a strategy of analysis that is designed to address several methodological concerns that are typically associated with these types of studies. In the end, the statistical evidence supports my analytical innovations, and I provide a strong understanding of what influences a state to adopt these policies. While understanding what influences a state to adopt these policies is important to our understanding of state politics and policymaking in general, it is also essential to determine if these policies achieve their intended goals of encouraging the installation of renewable energy systems. Previous research suggests that using financial incentives to achieve a policy goal typically fails. Using an improved analytical approach, I examine the influence of these policies on the construction of wind turbines in each state. The results provide evidence that some of these policies provide a strong impact on the construction of wind turbines. Importantly, these results can inform policymakers as to which policies appear to be successful, and which may not be worth the loss of tax revenue.

Water management in Texas is increasingly salient as the population grows, water supplies continue to be taxed and the planet continues to warm, resulting in more severe, widespread, and frequent droughts in the state. Public support, though, is often essential for governments to enact large-scale projects, like those that may be needed to tackle water management issues. Given the challenges facing the state of Texas, surprisingly few studies explore public attitudes, preferences, and risk assessments about water-related resource allocations. Will the public act to direct or limit the actions of its elected officials on water issues? Is the public ready to consider policies, regulations, and expenditures concerning the potential impacts of increased drought frequency on Texas water resources? We report the results of 2 public opinion surveys of the citizens of Texas that focused on water management and drought issues. We find that the public is willing to support government efforts to manage water, but not if these efforts negatively affect the environment or agriculture. Citation: Stoutenborough JW, Vedlitz A. 2013. Public attitudes toward water management and drought in Texas. Texas Water Journal. 4(2):47-61. Available from: https://doi.org/10.21423/twj.v4i2.6354.

Objective. As the price of energy swells, renewable energy sources will serve as important alternatives to fossil fuels. Identifying what influences a state to adopt a policy that promotes the construction of renewable energy sources is an important step toward understanding the nature of our future energy supplies.Methods. Using an event‐history analysis, we examine three competing diffusion explanations on the likelihood of a state adopting net metering.Results. We find that regional policy diffusion influences the likelihood of a state to adopt a net metering policy.Conclusions. The results suggest that states are learning from one another and that the EPA's regional offices help facilitate this diffusion.

Recent research on policy narratives shows that stakeholders strategically switch away from their preferred policy narrative to a different policy narrative in an effort to better appeal to the public. While this level of strategic decision making may not be surprising, frameworks such as the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) do not currently outline a theoretical explanation to predict when and why this behavior may occur at the micro, or individual, level. While the NPF deals with strategic decision making, it has done so at the meso, or subsystem, level. Thus far, NPF micro‐level development has focused on explaining why the target of a policy narrative would choose to adopt a particular narrative as their own view on the issue. This project begins the process of developing micro‐level theory to outline how an individual engages in strategic decision making. Specifically, we integrate the theorizing behind the Third‐Person Effect (TPE) into the NPF to develop and test new micro‐level hypotheses related to this strategic decision‐making process. Results suggest that the TPE influences how and why stakeholders decide which policy narratives they think will best resonate with the public. This research can help scholars better explain and predict why policy entrepreneurs use certain policy narratives.

AbstractClassic theory on bureaucracy suggests that one primary source of bureaucratic power in public administration and the policy‐making process derives from bureaucratic issue‐specific expertise. Studies in psychology and behavioral economics suggest that experienced experts tend to be overconfident in estimating their expertise, but few researchers have examined whether experienced bureaucrats are prone to overconfidence and, if so, how overconfidence may correlate with their policy choice. Drawing on past theoretical and empirical literature, this study is the first to investigate these questions by using survey data collected from 579 officials in various agencies related to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Our analyses demonstrate that (a) the level of issue‐specific expertise perceived by individual bureaucrats is positively associated with their work experience/job relevance to climate change, (b) more experienced bureaucrats tend to be more overconfident in assessing their expertise, and (c) overconfidence, independently of sociodemographic characteristics, attitudinal factors and political ideology, correlates positively with bureaucrats' risk‐taking policy choices.

A great deal of research has been dedicated to understanding the relationship of public preferences to public policy. Much of this literature, though, does not account for risk perception, an important characteristic that affects individuals' preferences. In terms of policy, those who perceive high risk in association with a particular issue should be more likely to oppose policies that would increase that risk, and, conversely, support policies that would decrease this risk. In this article, we examine the role of specific risk perceptions related to nuclear, coal, and renewable sources of energy on related policy preferences. Controlling for the influence of knowledge and several specific attitudinal indicators, we find that risk perceptions are strong predictors of energy policy preferences.

Perspectives on trust in government -- A theory of trust in administrative agencies -- Assessing trust in the EPA -- Building a model of trust in the EPA -- Demographics and trust in the EPA -- Political ideology and trust in the EPA -- Issue-specific attitudes and trust in the EPA

AbstractThe use of scientific information in the policy-making process is prevalent in today's society, and political figures frequently consult scientists and experts when considering complex issues like climate change. While policy process literature concerning agenda setting and policy networks, such as epistemic communities and advocacy coalitions, considers the role of scientists in policymaking, very little work has provided insight into the relative influence and perceived relationships between scientists and policymakers. The ability of scientists and policymakers to work together has important implications for policy outcomes. We explore individual scientist's perceptions of the collective influence the scientific community has on policymaking, in addition to perceptions of relationships between scientists and policymakers. We suggest that a number of factors are relevant including trust, contact, attitudes, specialisation and demographics. Our findings indicate that, from scientists' perspectives, contact with policymakers, trust and attitudes about climate change play a significant role in shaping their relationship with policymakers.