Referenda and Energy Policy

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

Abstract

Environmental sociology has developed a robust literature that examines which social, political, and economic factors influence environmental outcomes. Scholarship addressing this issue ranges from perspectives critical of the existing social system (capital) to those that see reform within this system as a possible means of addressing environmental issues. Regarding the former, the treadmill of production and metabolic rift analysis highlight the fundamental operation of the capitalist system, driven by accumulation and growth, tends to undermine efforts aimed at improving humanity’s relationship to the environment. Considering the latter, ecological modernization suggests that environmental reform is possible through the modernization process and that both economic growth and environmental protection can lead to a more sustainable future. More recent papers have suggested that, although important, a focus on the direct relationship between economic development and environmental outcomes only tests one aspect of the ecological modernization theory. In our study we build on previous research that assesses whether an increased ecological rationality helps create a context and the conditions within which environmental policy is more likely to emerge. Our study differs in three distinct ways. First, we utilize a different measure of ecological rationality from Adua, Clark, and Jorgenson (2022). Instead of using pro-environment voting of a states’ congressional delegation to congress we use a novel database of environment and energy-related referenda. Second, previous analyses have used states energy policies and state environmentalism as dependent variables we propose to focus on referenda (ecological rationality) as a key independent variable in assessing whether states characterized as having developed an ecological rationality are more likely to enact energy efficiency policies. Third, in addition to the states initiation of energy efficiency policy—measured by the ACEEE’s score of state’s performance on energy efficiency policies—we also propose to use the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) as a measure of policy outcome.

Authors

• Daniel Auerbach, University of Wyoming

• Heather Harper, New Mexico State University

• Arielle d'Arge, University of Wyoming

• Hayden Mackenzie, University of Wyoming

• Mackenzie Brooklyn Dybvik, New Mexico State University

• Thomas Anthony Frost, New Mexico State University