Abstract
Over the last two decades, state governments have assumed responsibility for U.S. energy and climate policy. In their roles as “laboratories of democracy,” states have designed a variety of policy tools to facilitate a transition toward energy decarbonization. At times, the national government has worked in coordination on these efforts; at other times, the national government has remained seized in political gridlock and unable or unwilling to join subnational decarbonization efforts.
In Climate and Clean Energy Policy: State Institutions and Economic Implications, Benjamin Deitchman presents a current snapshot of U.S. energy and climate policy, in which he features prominently the role of state leadership, as well as the policy instruments designed by states, and the manner in which politics and federalism have shaped the policy process. In an ambitious undertaking to describe the intricacies of modern U.S. energy and climate policy, Deitchman highlights many of the important trends and debates that have arisen within this realm over the past 20 or so years.
In Chapters 1 through 3, Deitchman sets the context for the book. In Chapter 1, he provides a brief overview of major energy and climate policy events since the 1970s. The discussion weaves together many different topics: energy agency funding, responsibilities, and coordination; major national legislation such as Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007; the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009; and international climate cooperation through the Kyoto Protocol. As the varied contents of this list suggests, Deitchman aptly describes the most recent era of energy and climate policy as “contested federalism,” a term originally used in this policy context by Rabe (2011) to describe the “blending of state and federal authority” over energy and climate (p. 494).
Chapter 2 elaborates on the theoretical lenses through which Deitchman assesses U.S. energy and climate policy. He draws from three prominent bodies of literature: federalism, policy instruments, and policy diffusion. A succinct summary of each collection of literature is provided; however, the discussion is arguably missing detail and nuance, as well as relevant literature. Chapter 3 explores the way the political orientation of a leader can shape which policies are considered, adopted, and designed, which is a theme that is carried through most chapters of the book. This chapter, and several others, highlights the role of the governor and the importance of his or her political affiliation in the adoption of energy and climate policies.
Chapters 4 through 7 all explore the context in which state or local-level policy instruments have been adopted, and to what ends. Chapter 4 focuses on financing policies and, in particular, policies that are more innovative and less traditional, such as a revolving loan or policy assessed clean energy (PACE) financing. The former is a type of loan that allows the recipient to replenish loan funds with the savings accrued through the initial loan and then continually pull from and replenish the fund with future investments. The latter allows property owners to finance up to 100% of the upfront costs of a clean energy project. Chapter 5 investigates building codes and the degree to which ARRA affected building code policies adopted by state governments. Chapter 6 considers regulatory policies such as renewable portfolio standards, which set a percentage of energy that must come from renewables, and energy efficiency resource standards, which set a percentage of total retail sales that must be met by energy efficiency savings. The main arguments that come out of this chapter are that mandatory policies are better than voluntary ones, and states tend to adopt efficiency standards when they face higher electricity prices and when they are politically more liberal leaning states. Chapter 7 is a descriptive overview of rate design, deregulation of electricity markets, and smart grids. Although the level of detail devoted to each of these policy tools may be a bit too thin, the selection of which tools to highlight is noteworthy. Deitchman features a group of particularly innovative policies, some of which are more mainstream (e.g., portfolio standards) but others are less common and therefore less well known, although increasingly regarded as cutting edge (e.g., PACE financing).
In perhaps the most well-researched and convincing chapter of the book, Chapter 8, Deitchman discusses state and local economic development and challenges the false dichotomy that policy makers must choose between meeting environmental goals and promoting economic growth. Deitchman explores the potential job creation opportunities that renewable energy and energy efficient development offer. The author relies on state-level climate and clean energy deployment case studies as well as economic analysis from Input–Output modeling to evaluate employment impacts of varying energy-related industries. The author’s modeling results indicate that investment in energy efficient and renewable energy technologies result in more job creation and other macroeconomic benefits than fossil fuel sector investments, although the conditions vary across states. Across all states, the most substantial job and other economic opportunities come from energy efficiency.
Deitchman considers the importance of federalism in advancing climate and clean energy policies through a global lens in Chapter 9. He returns to the discussion about the importance of subnational governments helping to facilitate energy and climate efforts, either as a lead or in coordination with other levels of government. One important additional perspective provided in this chapter, however, is the possibility for coordination between a subnational government in one country and a national or regional government of another. For example, the author cites the 2006 pact between California and the United Kingdom to coordinate programs to address climate change and promote energy diversity. The chapter also provides spotlights on Canadian, Australian, German, and U.K. national and subnational efforts to use polycentric energy and climate approaches. Although these case studies are brief, it is nonetheless helpful to consider the U.S. context as it relates to other countries’ experiences and governance.
The book concludes with a discussion about some of the uncertainties surrounding future energy and climate policy, as well as the other conditions that are equally uncertain but fundamentally shape policy and governance, such as political opposition, renewable and efficient technological developments, and the role of state governments at large in domestic energy policy making. Deitchman argues that, over the next several decades, states will need to continue to deploy climate and clean energy policy instruments to meet the challenges of a carbon-constrained future in a potentially difficult economic and political environment. Although the future circumstances behind these efforts are of course unknown, Deitchman predicts that those policies and programs that allow states maximum flexibility in setting their own targets and means for achieving their targets—in a manner consistent with the objectives of the Clean Power Plan, before it was repealed by the Trump Administration—provide the greatest likelihood of success.
Although Deitchman’s analysis of the U.S. energy and climate policy context is both interesting and demonstrates that the author is a scholar with a diverse range of analytical skills, the book is not without its limitations. Of particular importance is the degree of depth to which the author explores each topic. It is possible that the author tried to fit too many topics into a single book, but it is at the expense of a rich, detailed discussion of each. Similarly, the book does not exploit the extensive literature that already exists on the topic of U.S. energy and climate policy, especially from a federalism, policy instruments, policy diffusion, or political influence perspective. As a result, the coherence of the book suffers in places, with a lack of a thesis in some chapters and a connection of themes across chapters.
Nonetheless, by focusing on U.S. policy tools within the context of federalism and the underlying political environment, the book includes a diverse set of climate and energy policy case studies for its readers–graduate and undergraduate students of energy policy–to explore. One of the more impressive qualities of the book is the author’s ability to analyze each topic through a diverse set of theoretical perspectives. This interdisciplinary approach to such a multifaceted and complex topic provides a nice contribution to the public management and environmental federalism literature.