Modeling effective local government climate policies that exceed state targets

John H. Armstrong

Energy Policy, 2019, vol. 132, issue C, 15-26

Abstract: This study investigates how local governments can be effective and strategic in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It examines Community Choice Aggregation in California, a policy through which counties and cities are affecting significant changes to the state's electricity system. The study finds that by 2025, counties and cities that adopt the policy are forecasted to exceed the state's ambitious renewable energy goals by 4748 to 7625 GWh, reducing emissions equivalent to 1.14 to 2.04 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, in addition to other energy and community effects. The policy diffuses along political and social grounds, particularly in communities with higher levels of support for the environment, Democratic and Green party voters, and more education. These findings underscore the opportunity presented by targeted policymaking approaches, showing the capacity of local governments to affect statewide changes. Local government policymakers should seek to move beyond “low-hanging fruit” policies and enact difficult, effective policies. Strategy in policy adoption and diffusion is discussed related to the potential to enhance local government participation with high-impact policies.

Keywords: Energy policy; Local government policymaking; Climate policy; Policy diffusion; Strategic policymaking; Policy effectiveness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421519303143
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:132:y:2019:i:c:p:15-26

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2019.05.018

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France

More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().