scholarly journals How State Interventions affect Municipalities Taking the Lead in Sustainability

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6479
Author(s):  
Jayce L. Farmer ◽  
Andres J. Rodriguez Lombeida
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
State Energy ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Multilevel Governance ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Internal Operations ◽  
State And Local

The state and local governments throughout the United States interact within a complex system of multilevel governance to advance sustainability. However, we know little about what this hierarchical system of exchanges means for municipalities as they work to achieve energy efficient government operations. Drawing on a perspective of “contested federalism”, we examine how the transaction costs of state–local government relations affect the efforts of U.S. cities to lead by example and promote sustainability within their internal processes. We apply a Bayesian item response theory approach to assess the effects of state-level fiscal and policy interventions on municipal commitments to energy efficiency programs within their internal operations. Our findings suggest that increased fiscal support for state energy programs enhances municipal commitments to government focused energy efficiency. We also find a positive connection between state energy efficiency standards and municipal efforts to enhance energy efficiency within their internal operations. The alignment of state resources and policy efforts with municipal actions can reduce commitment and agency costs that obstruct policy outcomes. The findings speak to the importance of multilevel governance exchanges in municipal efforts to become leaders in sustainability.

Shaping State Fracking Policies in the United States

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles E. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Horizontal Drilling ◽  
Gas Drilling ◽  
The Past ◽  
Local Officials ◽  
State And Local

This article presents an overview of research focusing on how state and local governments have regulated oil and gas over the past decade following the expanded industry use of new technologies like hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and horizontal drilling. A consequence of fracking was a substantial increase in energy production accompanied by the emergence of policy concerns about how resource development and jobs could be balanced with efforts to maintain environmental quality. Researchers have dealt with three key concerns in the following sections: (1) determining whether state and local officials can each play an important role in developing policies affecting oil and gas drilling activities, (2) examining how state regulators deal with environmental and health impacts associated with fracking, and (3) looking at how state policy decisions have been shaped taking into account both state-level political and economic characteristics and agency resources and political will.

scholarly journals Promoting Clean Energy Innovation at the State and Local Level

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 360-373
Author(s):  
David Popp
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Level ◽  
State Level ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Working Paper ◽  
Energy Innovation ◽  
State And Local

AbstractInnovation is an important part of energy policy, and encouraging clean energy innovation is often an explicit goal of policy makers. For local governments, promoting clean energy innovation is seen not only as a pathway to a cleaner economy but also as a tool for promoting the local economy. But is such optimism warranted? There is a substantial literature examining the relationships between innovation and environmental policy, but few studies focus explicitly on innovation at the state and local level. In this paper, I provide key lessons from research on clean energy innovation, focusing on lessons relevant for state and local governments. I then summarize the results of a recent working paper by Fu et al. (2018) that studied wind energy innovation across individual states in the United States. While state-level policies can promote clean energy innovation, it is overall market size that matters most. Thus, innovation need not occur in those states most actively promoting clean energy. I conclude with lessons for state and local governments drawn from both this work and the broader literature on energy innovation.

State-Level Influences on Community-Level Municipal Sustainable Energy Policies

2021 ◽  
pp. 107808742199526
Author(s):  
Jayce L. Farmer
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
State Level ◽  
State Funding ◽  
Multilevel Governance ◽  
Community Level ◽  
Governance Systems ◽  
The Face ◽  
Fiscal Support ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Interdependent Relationships

State and local governments engage each other in a broad set of complicated interdependent relationships. Yet, there is limited research on what these multilevel governance relationships mean for community-focused sustainability. This study applies a transaction cost federalism framework to examine the hierarchical influences of state fiscal support and policy actions on municipal commitments to sustainability at the community-level. An analysis of U.S. cities reveals that state investments in energy programs encourage municipal efforts for incentivized energy efficiency initiatives for local taxpayers. Larger percentages of state funding directed to energy programs lead to stronger municipal commitments to incentivized sustainability programs such as individual grants, direct loans, and tax incentives. The results suggest that stable and supportive multilevel governance systems are key for reducing political transaction costs inherent within vertical systems driven by coercive authority. These findings produce theoretical and practical implications for understanding community-level sustainability within the face of “contested federalism.”

Industrial Policy and Local Economic Transformation: Evidence From the U.S. Rust Belt

2021 ◽  
pp. 089124242110228
Author(s):  
Ben Armstrong
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Policy ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
State Level ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Rust Belt ◽  
Industrial Policies ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
State And Local

State and local governments frequently invest in policies aimed at stimulating the growth of new industries, but studies of industrial policy and related economic development initiatives cast doubt on their effectiveness. This article examines the role of state-level industrial policies in contributing to the different economic trajectories of two U.S. metro areas—Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Cleveland, Ohio—as they adapted to the decline of their legacy industries. Comparative case studies show that industrial policies in Pittsburgh, which empowered research universities as local economic leaders, contributed to the transformation of the local economy. In Cleveland, by contrast, state industrial policies invested in making incremental improvements, particularly in legacy sectors. The article concludes that by empowering new local economic actors—such as universities—industrial policies can foment political change that enables structural economic change to follow.

scholarly journals Early Responses to Climate Change: An Analysis of Seven U.S. State and Local Climate Adaptation Planning Initiatives

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle Andrew Poyar ◽  
Nancy Beller-Simms
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Adaptation Planning ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Climate Adaptation Planning

Abstract State and local governments in the United States manage a wide array of natural and human resources that are particularly sensitive to climate variability and change. Recent revelations of the extent of the current and potential climate impact in this realm such as with the quality of water, the structure of the coasts, and the potential and witnessed impact on the built infrastructure give these political authorities impetus to minimize their vulnerability and plan for the future. In fact, a growing number of subnational government bodies in the United States have initiated climate adaptation planning efforts; these initiatives emphasize an array of climate impacts, but at different scales, scopes, and levels of sophistication. Meanwhile, the current body of climate adaptation literature has not taken a comprehensive look at these plans nor have they questioned what prompts local adaptation planning, at what scope and scale action is being taken, or what prioritizes certain policy responses over others. This paper presents a case-based analysis of seven urban climate adaptation planning initiatives, drawing from a review of publicly available planning documents and interviews with stakeholders directly involved in the planning process to provide a preliminary understanding of these issues. The paper also offers insight into the state of implementation of adaptation strategies, highlighting the role of low upfront costs and cobenefits with issues already on the local agenda in prompting anticipatory adaptation.

scholarly journals Integrated Data Systems in the US: a National Survey of State and Local Governments and their University Partners

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adelia Jenkins ◽  
Dennis Culhane
Keyword(s):  
Learning Community ◽  
National Survey ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Data Matrix ◽  
Data Systems ◽  
The Us ◽  
State And Local ◽  
K 12

Background Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy (AISP) is an initiative of the University of Pennsylvania that focuses on the development, use, and innovation of integrated data systems (IDS). We convene a network of IDS across the United States and provide technical assistance to support developing sites as they build the technical and human capacity to integrate and use administrative data across agencies. Main AimIn late 2018 and early 2019, AISP conducted a national survey of integrated data efforts to better understand the landscape and how it’s changed since the last national scan was completed in 2013. The survey also served to document who is leading data sharing efforts, what data they are linking, and how linked data are currently being used. This information was used to create a centralized data matrix and contact list in order to support cross-site learning and facilitate future projects and analyses. Methods/ApproachThe survey was disseminated to AISP Network Sites, Learning Community sites, and others by AISP staff and partner organizations, including the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership Network and Arnold Policy Labs initiative. Survey responses were analyzed by AISP in spring 2019. ResultsThe survey yielded 39 responses from state and local governments and their research partners. The most common uses of integrated data among those surveyed are informing policy, program evaluation, and research. Integrated case management and resource allocation are also increasingly informed by integrated data. The most commonly integrated data sources are early childhood, child welfare, and K-12 education. Medicaid, TANF, SNAP, and UI Wage Records have also been integrated by over 50% of sites surveyed. The most common lingering challenges reported by sites related to sustainability. ConclusionSurvey results document the purposes and sources of data currently integrated by jurisdictions across the US and have major implications for the field both nationally and internationally.

Within Source Diversification When the Going Gets Tough: Examining Alterations to Human Service Nonprofit Funding by Levels of Government

2021 ◽  
pp. 45-66
Keyword(s):  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Human Service ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
The United States ◽  
Government Funding ◽  
Federal State ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Nonprofit Funding ◽  
State And Local ◽  
The Government

Government increasingly relies on nonprofit organizations to deliver public services, especially for human services. As such, human service nonprofits receive a substantial amount of revenue from government agencies via grants and contracts. Yet, times of crises result in greater demand for services, but often with fewer financial resources. As governments and nonprofits are tasked to do more with less, how does diversification within the government funding stream influence government-nonprofit funding relationships? More specifically, we ask: How do the number of different government partners and the type of government funder—federal, state, or local—influence whether nonprofits face alterations to government funding agreements? Drawing upon data from over 2,000 human service nonprofits in the United States, following the Great Recession, we find nonprofit organizations that only received funds from the federal government were less likely to experience funding alterations. This helps to illustrate the economic impact of the recession on state and local governments as well as the nonprofit organizations that partner with them.

The Contours of Repression

2019 ◽  
pp. 184-208
Author(s):  
David M. Struthers
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
The United States ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Industrial Workers ◽  
World War One ◽  
International Borders ◽  
The World ◽  
Sedition Act ◽  
State And Local

This chapter examines the World War One period in which the federal, state, and local governments in the United States, in addition to non-state actors, created one of the most severe eras of political repression in United States history. The Espionage Act, the Sedition Act, changes to immigration law at the federal level, and state criminal syndicalism laws served as the legal basis for repression. The Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM), Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and other anarchists took different paths in this era. Some faced lengthy prison sentences, some went underground, while others crossed international borders to flee repression and continue organizing. This chapter examines the repression of radical movements and organizing continuities that sustained the movement into the 1920s.

Government and Fiscal Policy in American Economic History

2018 ◽  
pp. 194-224
Author(s):  
John Joseph Wallis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Property Tax ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Payroll Taxes ◽  
The Third ◽  
State And Local

Over the last 225 years, government finances in the United States have gone through three distinct stages. In the first stage, 1790–1850, state governments actively pursued policies to promote economic development and financed them from revenues from state investments. In the second, 1850–1930, local governments became the most important level of government, as measured by revenues and expenditures, and revenues shifted toward the property tax. In the third period, 1930 to the present, the national government became the most active and largest level of government, financed through income and payroll taxes, and developed an extensive network of grants to state and local governments. The chapter tracks the changes in sources of revenues and purpose of expenditures, with specific attention paid to military spending over the entire period.

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