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Public Opinion On Renewable Energy: The Nexus Of Climate, Politics, And Economy, Shawn K. Olson-Hazboun

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation research examines the factors underlying public opinion toward renewable energy in the United States. U.S. citizens in general support the continued development of renewable energy, yet opposition has been widely observed toward a variety of renewable energy facilities at the local level. Previous research on public responses to renewable energy has focused on one or a small number of communities experiencing renewable energy development. In this research I examine public views more broadly, in communities with and without renewable energy development, and also using nationally representative opinion data. I ask the following questions:

What local experiences influence how …

The Utah Statesman, April 24, 2017, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Curriculum Subcommittee Agenda, April 6, 2017, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

Program Proposals

• Offering an accelerated Masters of Landscape Architecture
• Changing the name of the Department of Family, Consumer, and Human Development to Human Development and Family Studies
• Offering a Mental Health Advocacy and Awareness minor
• Offering a Surgical Technician Certificate of Completion
• Offering a Pharmacy Technician Certificate of Proficiency
• Restructuring the MEd in Curriculum and Instruction
• Restructuring the Master of Science in Curriculum and Instruction
• Restructuring the Certificate of Proficiency in Rehabilitation

Semester Course Approval Reviews

Other

• Syllabus Tracker Update
• R401s Moved to EPC Website | New Provost’s Office Website
• Curriculog Update

Educational Policies Committee Agenda, April 6, 2017, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Subcommittee Reports
• Curriculum Subcommittee
• Course Approvals
• Program Proposals
• Academic Standards Subcommittee
• General Education Subcommittee

Usu Faculty Senate Minutes, April 3, 2017, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• Election Schedule | Procedures - Leslie Brott
• Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee – Michael Lyons
• Professional Responsibilities and Procedures Committee – Jerry Goodspeed
• EPC (March) Report - Ed Reeve

Faculty Senate Agenda, April 3, 2017, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee
• Professional Responsibilities and Procedures Committee
• EPC March Report

China: Avoiding Impediments To Successful Climate Change Mitigation, Molly Rose Van Engelenhoven

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This paper uses the Cultural Topography (CTOPs) methodology, an intelligence community standard which is used to avoid ethnocentric analysis and the dangerous practice of mirror imaging--projecting US culture on to another country rather than viewing the costs and benefits they face through their own cultural lens. CTOPs assess a country’s culture by examining four components of culture: identity, values, norms, and perceptual lens of an actor in conjunction with a specific issue of concern. This paper examines the internal culture of China, with the Chinese government as the key actor, to discover how to build effective policy to regulate air …

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Agenda, March 20, 2017, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee
• Professional Responsibilities and Procedures Committee
• EPC March Report

Fire Disturbance Disrupts An Acacia Ant–Plant Mutualism In Favor Of A Subordinate Ant Species, Ryan L. Sensenig, Duncan K. Kimuyu, Juan C. Ruiz Guajardo, Kari E. Veblen, Corinna Riginos, Truman P. Young

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Although disturbance theory has been recognized as a useful framework in examining the stability of ant–plant mutualisms, very few studies have examined the effects of fire disturbance on these mutualisms. In myrmecophyte-dominated savannas, fire and herbivory are key drivers that could influence ant–plant mutualisms by causing complete colony mortality and/or decreasing colony size, which potentially could alter dominance hierarchies if subordinate species are more fire resilient. We used a large-scale, replicated fire experiment to examine long-term effects of fire on acacia–ant community composition. To determine if fire shifted ant occupancy from a competitive dominant to a subordinate ant species, we …

Curriculum Subcommittee Minutes, March 2, 2017, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

Program Proposals

• Offering a Master of Aviation Science
• Offering a Master of Science in Data Science
• Offering an On-Line Certificate in Engineering Education
• Restructuring the Environmental Studies Bachelor of Science program

Semester Course Approval Reviews

Educational Policies Committee Agenda, March 2, 2017, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Subcommittee Reports
• Curriculum Subcommittee
• Course Approvals
• Program Proposals
• Academic Standards Subcommittee
• General Education Subcommittee

Curriculum Subcommittee Agenda, March 2, 2017, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

Program Proposals

• Offering a Master of Aviation Science
• Offering a Master of Science in Data Science
• Offering an On-Line Certificate in Engineering Education
• Restructuring the Environmental Studies Bachelor of Science program

Semester Course Approval Reviews

Educational Policies Committee Minutes, March 2, 2017, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Subcommittee Reports
• Curriculum Subcommittee
• Course Approvals
• Program Proposals
• Academic Standards Subcommittee
• General Education Subcommittee

Determining Annual Cryosphere Storage Contributions To Stream Flow Using Historical Hydrometric Records, Janice Brahney, Brian Menounos, Xiaohua Wei, Paul Jefferson Curtis

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Alpine glaciers and perennial snow fields are important hydrologic elements in many mountain environments providing runoff during the late summer and during periods of drought. Because relatively long records of glacier mass–balance data are absent from many glacierized catchments, it remains unclear to what extent shrinking perennial snow and glaciers have affected runoff trends from these watersheds. Here, we employ a hydrograph separation technique that uses a double mass curve in an attempt to isolate changes in runoff due to glacier retreat and disappearance of perennial snow. The method is tested using hydrometric data from 20 glacierized and 16 nonglacierized …

Free Market Ideology And Deregulation In Colorado's Oil Fields: Evidence For Triple Movement Activism?, Stephanie A. Malin, Adam Mayer, Kelly Shreeve, Shawn K. Olson-Hazboun, John Adgate

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Unconventional oil and gas extraction(UOGE) has spurred an unprecedented boom in on-shore production in the U.S.Despite a surge in related research, a void exists regarding policy-related inquiries.To address this gap, we examine support of federal regulatory exemptions for UOGE using survey data collected in 2015 from two northern Colorado communities as part of a National Institutes of Health study.We assert that current regulatory exemptions for UOGE can be understood as components of broader societal processes of neoliberalization. We test whether free market ideologies relate to people’s regulatory views and find that free market ideology increases public support for federal regulatory …

Assessment Of Usda-Nrcs Rangeland Conservation Programs: Recommendation For An Evidence-Based Conservation Platform, David D. Briske, Brandon T. Bestelmeyer, Joel R. Brown, Mark W. Brunson, Thomas L. Thurow, John Tanaka

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

The Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) was created in response to a request from the Office of Management and Budget that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resource Conservation Service (USDA- NRCS) document the societal benefits anticipated to accrue from a major increase in conservation funding authorized by the 2002 Farm Bill. A comprehensive evaluation of the efficacy of rangeland conservation practices cost- shared with private landowners was unable to evaluate conservation benefits because outcomes were seldom documented. Four interrelated suppositions are presented to examine the causes underlying minimal documentation of conservations outcomes. These suppositions are (1) the benefits of …

Effects Of Road And Land Use On Frog Distributions Across Spatial Scales And Regions In The Eastern And Central United States, David M. Marsh, Bradley J. Cosentino, Kara S. Jones, Joseph J. Apodaca, Karen H. Beard, Jane Margaret Bell, Christine Bozarth, Derrick Carper, Julie F. Charbonnier, Andreia Dantas, Elizabeth A. Forys, Miran Foster, Jaquelyn General, Kristen S. Genet, Macie Hanneken, Kyle R. Hess, Shane A. Hill, Faisal Iqbal, Nancy E. Karraker, Eran S. Kilpatrick, Tom A. Langen, James Langford, Kathryn Lauer, Alison J. Mccarthy, Joseph Neale, Saumya Patel, Austin Patton, Cherie Southwick, Nathaniel Stearrett, Nicholas Steijn, Mohammed Tasleem, Jospeh M. Taylor, James R. Vonesh

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Understanding the scales over which land use affects animal populations is critical for conservation planning, and it can provide information about the mechanisms that underlie correlations between species distributions and land use. We used a citizen science database of anuran surveys to examine the relationship between road density, land use and the distribution of frogs and toads across spatial scales and regions of the United States.

The Utah Statesman, November 17, 2016, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Continental-Scale Quantification Of Landscape Values Using Social Media Data, Boris T. Van Zanten, Derek B. Van Berkel, Ross K. Meentemeyer, Jordan Smith, Koen F. Tieskens, Peter H. Verburg

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

Individuals, communities, and societies ascribe a diverse array of values to landscapes. These values are shaped by the aesthetic, cultural, and recreational benefits and services provided by those landscapes. However, across the globe, processes such as urbanization, agricultural intensification, and abandonment are threatening landscape integrity, altering the personally meaningful connections people have toward specific places. Existing methods used to study landscape values, such as social surveys, are poorly suited to capture dynamic landscape-scale processes across large geographic extents. Social media data, by comparison, can be used to indirectly measure and identify valuable features of landscapes at a regional, continental, and …

The Utah Statesman, November 14, 2016, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

The Utah Statesman, November 7, 2016, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Public Views On Renewable Energy In The Rocky Mountain Region Of The United States: Distinct Attitudes, Exposure, And Other Key Predictors Of Wind Energy, Shawn K. Olson-Hazboun, Richard S. Krannich, Peter Robertson

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Student Research

Renewable energy is often framed by policymakers and the media as an environmental or ‘green’ issue motivated by global climate change and the need for greenhouse gas reductions. However, some researchers studying social responses to renewables have found that factors other than opinions about climate change may be more influential in determining support for renewables. This study analyzes survey data from a study of five communities in the Rocky Mountain region of the U.S. experiencing wind energy development to examine the relationship between environmental beliefs, climate change opinions, and support for renewable energy. Results show that views on renewable energy …

How To Quantify The Temporal Storage Effect Using Simulations Instead Of Math, Stephen P. Ellner, Robin E. Snyder, Peter B. Adler

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

The storage effect, originally a theoretical hypothesis to explain how ecologically similar species could coexist by responding differently to environmental variability (Chesson & Warner, 1981; Shmida & Ellner, 1984), has developed into a core concept in community ecology (Mittelbach 2012)with empirical support from communities of prairie grasses (Adler et al., 2006), desert annual plants (Pake & Venable, 1995; Angert et al., 2009), tropical trees (Usinowicz et al., 2012) and zooplankton(Caceres, 1997). An essential step in this maturation was mathematical analysis (Chesson, 1994, 2000a) that identified the conditions required for the storage effect to help stabilize coexistence of competitors. For the …

The Utah Statesman, October 17, 2016, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Faculty Senate Agenda, October 3, 2016, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• EPC Items –September 2016
• Honors Program
• Libraries Advisory Council
• Parking Committee
• Student Code of Conduct

Differentiating Urban Forms: A Neighborhood Typology For Understanding Urban Water Systems, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith, Philip A. Stoker, Martin Buchert, Joanna Endter-Wada, Carlos V. Licon, Molly S. Cannon, Shujuan Li, Zack Bjerregaard, Luke Bell

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

With rising populations and changing climates, urban areas need water systems capable of meeting a range of social, economic and environmental sustainability objectives. Different configurations of urban growth and development also produce varying water system outcomes. In this paper we develop a multi-dimensional classification scheme that identifies distinct configurations of ‘urban forms’ in Northern Utah, USA. We identified characteristics within urban landscapes that have been linked in the scientific literature to three types of water outcomes: water demand, water budgets, and water quality. Using publicly-available data at the census block scale, we create a typology of urban neighborhoods that share …

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Agenda, September 19, 2016, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• EPC Items - September 2016
• Honors Program
• Libraries Advisory Council
• Parking Committee
• Student Code of Conduct

Future Changes In Propagating And Non-Propagating Diurnal Rainfall Over East Asia, Wan-Ru Huang, Shih-Yu (Simon) Wang

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

The characteristics of diurnal rainfall in the East Asian continent consist of a propagating regime over the Yangtze River and a non-propagating regime in southeast China. Simulations of these two diurnal rainfall regimes by 18 CMIP5 models were evaluated from the historical experiment of 1981–2005. The evaluation led to the identification of one model, the CMCC-CM that replicated the key characteristics of diurnal rainfall regimes including the propagation of moisture convergence. Using the CMCC-CM to assess the future (2076–2100) change of diurnal evolution and propagation projected by the RCP4.5 experiment, it was found that propagating diurnal rainfall will enhance and …

Viirs S-Npp Nighttime Dnb Spectral Response Function (Srf): The At-Launch Characteristics And How The Srf Changes With Time Due To Tungsten Oxides Chromaticity, Bruce Guenther, N. Lei, C. Moeller

The Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing Annual Meeting (CALCON)

The VIIRS Day-Night Band (DNB) is designed with 3 gain stages: Low (LGS), Mid (MGS) and High (HGS) to span bright daytime to moonlit night earth scene signal levels. The published at-launch DNB relative spectral response (RSR) is based upon the LGS spectral measurements, since it was well measured in the pre-launch test program and the LGS can be calibrated by the on-board solar diffuser (MGS and HGS saturate on the SD). The LGS RSR however does not fully represent the spectral characteristics of nighttime DNB data from the MGS and HGS. Nighttime data users who apply the detailed DNB …

The Utah Statesman, May 18, 2016, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.