Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Administrative Organization Of Sustainability Within Local Government, Rachel Krause, Richard Feiock, Christopher Hawkins

Rachel M. Krause

Administrative structure can shape bureaucratic process, performance, and responsiveness and is a particularly important consideration when new bureaucratic functions and programs are being established. However, the factors that influence the assignment of these functions to specific government agencies or departments are understudied, particularly at the local level. The absence of empirical evidence regarding bureaucratic assignment in local government limits understanding of institutional design and the organizational choices available, particularly as they relate to specific policy areas. As an initial step in developing a theory of agency assignment at the local level, we examine the placement of sustainability programs in 401 …

The Motivations Behind Municipal Climate Engagement: An Empirical Assessment Of How Local Objectives Shape The Production Of A Public Good, Rachel Krause

Rachel M. Krause

Cities engage in greenhouse gas mitigation efforts because of some combination of desires to achieve local co-benefits, respond to the preferences and pressures of influential political actors, and contribute to the public good by minimizing climate change. The relative importance of each motivation is hypothesized to affect the composition and comprehensiveness of subsequent climate initiatives. In some cities, initiatives appear to be ad hoc collections of tangentially related actions, whereas in others they are the result of a strategic planning process. This article uses survey-based data collected from U.S. cities that are explicitly involved in climate-change mitigation efforts and empirically …

An Assessment Of The Impact That Participation In Local Climate Networks Has On Cities’ Implementation Of Climate, Energy, And Transportation Policies, Rachel Krause

Rachel M. Krause

Much of the attention surrounding local climate protection in the United States is associated with two networks: ICLEI’s Cities for Climate Protection and the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement (MCPA). However, the impact of these networks on member-city actions has not been clearly established. This paper examines whether, and to what extent, participation in climate networks leads to the implementation of GHG-reducing policies, above and beyond what would have been done in their absence. To account for the possibility that cities which join climate networks are systematically different from those that do not and control for self-selection induced …

Intent To Purchase A Plug-In Electric Vehicle: A Survey Of Early Impressions In Large U.S. Cites, Rachel Krause

Rachel M. Krause

This paper examines consumer stated intent to purchase plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) and assesses the factors that increase or decrease interest. It utilizes a survey of 2,302 adult drivers in 21 large U.S. cities. The survey occurred in early fall 2011, before vehicle manufacturers and dealers began information and marketing campaigns, and thus serves to document early impressions of this emerging transport technology. The central finding of the analysis is that, given current battery technology and public perceptions, overall stated intent to purchase or lease PEVs is low. Interest in plug-in hybrid technology is somewhat greater than interest in all-electric …

Early Public Impressions Of Terrestrial Carbon Capture And Storage In A Coal-Intensive State., Rachel Krause

Rachel M. Krause

While carbon capture and storage (CCS) is considered to be critical to achieving long-term climate-protection goals, public concerns about the CCS practice could pose significant obstacles to its deployment. This study reports findings from the first state-wide survey of public perceptions of CCS in a coal-intensive state, with an analysis of which factors predict early attitudes toward CCS. Nearly three-quarters of an Indiana sample (N=1,001) agree that storing carbon underground is a good approach to protecting the environment, despite 80% of the sample being unaware of CCS prior to participation in the two-wave survey. The majority of respondents do not …

The Impact Of Municipal Renewable Electricity Use On Greenhouse Gas Emissions In The United States, Rachel M. Krause

Rachel M. Krause

Local governments are increasingly taking initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, limited and inconsistent data makes evaluating the aggregate impact of relevant actions difficult. This paper focuses specifically on U.S. city governments’ use of renewable electricity to power their own operations. It develops a range of rough estimates for the cumulative nationwide impact of this activity and finds that it results in an annual abatement of between 5.8 and 29.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), with the best approximation being 6.2 million tons CO2e a year. This is about 20% of the estimated total that …

Transaction Costs And Environmental Policy: An Assessment Framework And Literature Review, Kerry Krutilla Rachel M. Krause

Rachel M. Krause

This article develops a “transaction cost” framework for the analysis of environmental policy, and uses it to organize a discussion of recent literature on policy design and evaluation. We also consider the implications of this framework for optimal environmental policy-making and benefit-cost analysis. The conceptual orientation motivating the work is influenced by the neoinstitutional economics perspective developed by Eggertsson (1990), and others, which itself is influenced by the fundamental work of Coase (1937, 1960).

This transaction cost framework will emphasize the costs of establishing the rights to use environmental resources and the costs of the ex post monitoring and enforcement …

Political Decision-Making And The Local Provision Of Public Goods: The Case Of Municipal Climate Protection, Rachel Krause

Rachel M. Krause

The municipal political decision-making dynamic has typically been studied in regard to the provision of locally public goods and services whose benefits, while diffuse, are tied to a particular geography. This research extends current knowledge by empirically examining the local production of a globally public good: climate protection. It utilizes an original nation-wide dataset on the greenhouse gas-reducing activities that have been implemented by city governments in the United States. This data enables the development of a more comprehensive measure of local climate protection than has been used in previous quantitative research. Several theories of local political decision-making are tested …

An Assessment Of The Greenhouse Gas Reducing Activities Being Implemented In Us Cities, Rachel Krause

Rachel M. Krause

Local climate protection initiatives are receiving increased attention and support. However, most of the current understanding about their content, motivation, and impact is based on qualitative studies, whose findings cannot be generalized, or quantitative studies, which consider superficial measures of policy adoption. There is a lack of information about the type and extent of GHG-reducing actions that “typical” cities have implemented, whether or not they are explicitly framed as part of a broader climate protection strategy. In an effort to address this gap, this paper examines original data collected from a nation-wide sample of U.S. cities on their implementation of …

Symbolic Or Substantive Policy? Measuring The Extent Of Local Commitment To Climate Protection, Rachel Krause

Rachel M. Krause

Over 1,000 U.S. municipalities have formally committed to reduce their local greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through participation in one of several climate protection networks. This has attracted the attention of researchers interested in theories of free-riding and local political decision making who question why municipalities become engaged in this global effort. However, whereas joining a climate protection network or adopting an emissions reduction goal are relatively low cost acts, the implementation of such policies entails higher costs. This raises legitimate questions about the extent and type of follow-through made on municipal climate protection commitments. This paper begins to fill-in the …

Policy Innovation, Intergovernmental Relations, And The Adoption Of Climate Protection Initiatives By U.S. Cities, Rachel Krause

Rachel M. Krause

In the absence of federal requirements, how do state- and municipal-level characteristics impact the probability of local policy innovation? This article provides insight by examining the adoption of sub-national climate change mitigation initiatives in the United States. Drawing from literature on policy innovation, a multilevel model is developed to examine the factors influencing over 900 U.S. cities to eschew free-rider tendencies and formally commit to greenhouse gas reduction. Multilevel analysis recognizes the nested structure of cities within states and accounts for the shared economic, political, and policy environments experienced by cities within the same state. The level of initiative state …

Symbolic Or Substantive Policy? Measuring The Extent Of Local Commitment To Climate Protection, Rachel M. Krause

Rachel M. Krause

Over 1,000 U.S. municipalities have formally committed to reduce their local greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through participation in one of several climate protection networks. This has attracted the attention of researchers interested in theories of free-riding and local political decision making who question why municipalities become engaged in this global effort. However, whereas joining a climate protection network or adopting an emissions reduction goal are relatively low cost acts, the implementation of such policies entails higher costs. This raises legitimate questions about the extent and type of follow-through made on municipal climate protection commitments. This paper begins to fill-in the …

Symbolic Or Substantive Policy? Measuring The Extent Of Local Commitment To Climate Protection, Rachel M. Krause

Rachel M. Krause

Over 1,000 U.S. municipalities have formally committed to reduce their local greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through participation in one of several climate protection networks. This has attracted the attention of researchers interested in theories of free-riding and local political decision making who question why municipalities become engaged in this global effort. However, whereas joining a climate protection network or adopting an emissions reduction goal are relatively low cost acts, the implementation of such policies entails higher costs. This raises legitimate questions about the extent and type of follow-through made on municipal climate protection commitments. This paper begins to fill-in the …

Developing Conditions For Environmentally Sustainable Consumption: Drawing Insight From Anti-Smoking Policy, Rachel Krause

Rachel M. Krause

This paper starts from the premise that, particularly in industrialized countries, the consumption decisions made by individuals and households are a major source of environmental strain. Several international organizations and national governments have addressed this issue, but, thus far, their efforts have had minimal effect. This paper examines the conditions necessary for the implementation of policy able to effectively reduce the environmental impact of household consumption. It draws from the experience of American tobacco control, a relatively rare example of a public effort that succeeded in reducing the negative consequences of an entitled consumer behaviour.

An extensive review of the …