The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

• Published date: 01 June 2014
• DOI: 10.1177/0160323X14538066
• Date: 01 June 2014
• Author: Martin Hyman,Sanya Carley
• Subject Matter: Governance Matters Manuscripts

Governance Matters Manuscript

The American Recovery and

Reinvestment Act: Lessons

from Energy Program

Implementation Efforts

Sanya Carley

1

and Martin Hyman

1

Abstract

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act injected approximately US$840 billion into the U.S.

economy for job creation, technological advancement, and infrastructure development. This study

examines energy-related Recovery Act program implementation. The Recovery Act provided many

immediate benefits to the economy, environment, and energy sector, but implementation was

hindered by several conditions. This study offers selected case studies and a set of lessons learned

for state officials.

Keywords

American recovery and reinvestment act, energy policy, policy implementation

Introduction

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

(ARRA) of 2009 injected US$840 billion into

the economy for economic stimulus. We know

little, however, about the implementation of the

Act. The implementation issues provide impor-

tant lessons for state officials about managing

large amounts of short-term funding under

strict conditions. It is additionally important

to reflect on which aspects of the Act were most

difficult to comply with, and how these chal-

lenges affected specific programs. This art icle

first provides a brief description of various

energy programs, followed by a discussion of

their implementation. Second, it highlights and

analyzes several cases of implementation.

Third, it concludes with lessons learned from

these cases. The information for this research

was obtained from government reports on the

Act as well as in-depth phone interviews

conducted in 2013 with forty-six representa-

tives of state energy offices.

Recovery Act Energy Programs

Overview

The Act included several programs related to

energy. Table 1 provides a brief summary of

each energy program and the amount of money

that was awarded to and spent by recipients to

finance each office and program by the first

quarter of 2013. This summary only includes

offices and programs under the ad ministration

1

School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana

University, Bloomington, IN, USA

Corresponding Author:

Sanya Carley, School of Public and Environmental Affairs,

Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA.

Email: scarley@indiana.edu

State and Local GovernmentReview

2014, Vol. 46(2) 130-137

ªThe Author(s) 2014

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DOI: 10.1177/0160323X14538066

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