Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Powering Sustainability: Municipal Utilities And Local Government Policymaking, George C. Homsy

George Homsy

Sustainability policymaking presents numerous challenges to local governments. Municipal leaders, especially in smaller cities and towns, report that they lack the fiscal capacity and/or technical expertise to adopt many environmental protection policies. This paper investigates whether the more than 2,000 municipally-owned utilities have the potential to mitigate those problems. Data from two surveys of local governments in the United States (n=861), modeled in a pair of negative binomial regressions, finds a positive correlation between those cities with municipal power companies and those with an increased number of community-wide sustainable energy policies. Follow-up interviews with officials reveal the potential mechanisms driving …

Cities And Sustainability: Polycentric Action And Multilevel Governance, George C. Homsy, Mildred E. Warner

George Homsy

Polycentric theory, as applied to sustainability policy adoption, contends that municipalities will act independently to provide public services that protect the environment. Our multilevel regression analysis of survey responses from 1,497 municipalities across the United States challenges that notion. We find that internal drivers of municipal action are insufficient. Lower policy adoption is explained by capacity constraints. More policymaking occurs in states with a multilevel governance framework supportive of local sustainability action. Contrary to Fischel’s homevoter hypothesis, we find large cities and rural areas show higher levels of adoption than suburbs (possibly due to free riding within a metropolitan region).

Incentive Zoning: Understanding A Market-Based Planning Tool, George C. Homsy, Gina Abrams, Valerie Monastra

George Homsy

No abstract provided.

Environmental Efficiency Of Automobile Energy Choices, Peter V. Schwartz, Chiweng Kam, John Ross Dr

Peter V. Schwartz