Poster #105 - State Preemption Laws and the Adoption of Local Climate Policy

• In Event: Saturday Poster Luncheon

Abstract

Cities and their governments have become focal points for implementing innovative climate actions, making them essential units for effective intervention to address climate change impacts (Hughes et al., 2018). In the United States, however, federal and state governments can use the doctrine of preemption to either restrict or enable local governments in environmental efforts (Weiland, 2000; Boeckelman and Day, 2021). For example, Arizona’s Senate Bill 1507, passed in 2012, prohibits the state and its political subdivisions from adopting or implementing the United Nations Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, whereas New Jersey’s Senate Bill 2607, passed in 2020, requires municipal master plans to factor in climate change. This shows that governments at higher levels can exercise authority that shapes local environmental policies. Previous local climate policy studies rarely examine how this broader policy environment shapes local environmental decision-making. In this study, I ask: Can state preemption laws be barriers or enablers to the adoption of local climate policies? I rely on a policy adoption framework that includes key factors such as problem severity (i.e., climate risk), internal political and institutional factors (i.e., public support and government capacity), and external factors (i.e., state preemption laws or state climate action plans). I collected policy documents (e.g., Climate Adaptation Plans) from 50 US cities released between 2000 and 2024, which serve as an outcome condition (i.e., the adoption or non-adoption of the local climate policy). Of the 50 most populous cities in each state in 2010, 37 cities released climate plans (adoption), and 13 cities did not (non-adoption). Data for explanatory conditions come from various sources prior to the release date of each policy document. Specifically, 32 states have preemption laws regarding environmental issues, and 18 states do not. I will further operationalize the nature of those preemption laws (as an enabler or a restrictor) for analysis. I use Qualitative Comparative Analysis as the method, appropriate for separately examining the presence or absence of local climate policy with distinct causal factors. This research extends my previous work presented at APPAM in 2023, which did not examine the state’s policy environment as a factor in explaining local climate policy adoption. This research contributes to the literature of multilevel governance by revealing how specific configurations of factors, including state preemption laws, create pathways for the adoption or non-adoption of local climate policy. The findings provide local governments with strategic insights to navigate multilevel governance arrangements and improve climate resilience.

Author

• Jieun Kim, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author