From Backlash to Preemption in Climate Change Politics: Copy-and-Paste Legislating in the States against Sustainable Buildings

• In Event: Environmental Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 9: Governance, Policy, and the State

Abstract

Battles between environmental activists and incumbent fossil fuel industries have become more intense at the subnational level in recent decades, as states and localities debate reforms toward greater sustainability. A key feature of the subnational climate change mitigation backlash has involved coalitions between fossil fuel industries and allied policymakers in the Republican party, passing measures at the state-level that preempt efforts by localities to become more sustainable. While much is known about processes of climate backlash and related policy diffusion, less is known about the extent of copy-and-paste legislating as a means of preempting climate action, as states heavily borrow from one another (and from mutual lobbyists) to pass similar legislation. We created a unique directed dyadic dataset examining both the diffusion and text similarity (using plagiarism detection at scale) of state legislative bills preempting localities from restricting natural gas utility connections in newly constructed buildings. We find, first, that the diffusion of state preemption legislation was affected by factors including the conservatism of a state’s legislators, the extent of fracking activity, a state’s history of engagement with preemption, and lobbying activity. Second, net of diffusion, states did more copy-and-paste legislating if they were lobbied by the same natural gas industry lobbyists and are geographically adjacent, but they did less of this if both states had higher representation of environmentalist organizations. Our study bears implications for theory and research on climate backlash, environmental movements, and subnational political processes.

Authors

• Edward T. Walker, University of California-Los Angeles

• Andrew Malmuth, University of California-Los Angeles