Book Review: Climate and Clean Energy Policy: State Institutions and Economic Implications

• Author: Michelle Graff,Sanya Carley
• DOI: 10.1177/0275074017741541
• Published date: 01 July 2018
• Date: 01 July 2018
• Subject Matter: Book Review

American Review of Public Administration

2018, Vol. 48(5) 490 –491

© The Author(s) 2017

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Book Review

Over the last two decades, state governments have assumed

responsibility for U.S. energy and climate policy. In their

roles as “laboratories of democracy,” states have designed a

variety of policy tools to facilitate a transition toward energy

decarbonization. At times, the national government has

worked in coordination on these efforts; at other times, the

national government has remained seized in political grid-

lock and unable or unwilling to join subnational decarbon-

ization efforts.

In Climate and Clean Energy Policy: State Institutions

and Economic Implications, Benjamin Deitchman presents a

current snapshot of U.S. energy and climate policy, in which

he features prominently the role of state leadership, as well

as the policy instruments designed by states, and the manner

in which politics and federalism have shaped the policy pro-

cess. In an ambitious undertaking to describe the intricacies

of modern U.S. energy and climate policy, Deitchman high-

lights many of the important trends and debates that have

arisen within this realm over the past 20 or so years.

In Chapters 1 through 3, Deitchman sets the context for

the book. In Chapter 1, he provides a brief overview of major

energy and climate policy events since the 1970s. The dis-

cussion weaves together many different topics: energy

agency funding, responsibilities, and coordination; major

national legislation such as Energy Independence and

Security Act of 2007; the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009;

and international climate cooperation through the Kyoto

Protocol. As the varied contents of this list suggests,

Deitchman aptly describes the most recent era of energy and

climate policy as “contested federalism,” a term originally

used in this policy context by Rabe (2011) to describe the

“blending of state and federal authority” over energy and cli-

mate (p. 494).

Chapter 2 elaborates on the theoretical lenses through

which Deitchman assesses U.S. energy and climate policy.

He draws from three prominent bodies of literature: federal-

ism, policy instruments, and policy diffusion. A succinct

summary of each collection of literature is provided; how-

ever, the discussion is arguably missing detail and nuance, as

well as relevant literature. Chapter 3 explores the way the

political orientation of a leader can shape which policies are

considered, adopted, and designed, which is a theme that is

carried through most chapters of the book. This chapter, and

several others, highlights the role of the governor and the

importance of his or her political affiliation in the adoption of

energy and climate policies.

Chapters 4 through 7 all explore the context in which state

or local-level policy instruments have been adopted, and to

what ends. Chapter 4 focuses on financing policies and, in

particular, policies that are more innovative and less tradi-

tional, such as a revolving loan or policy assessed clean

energy (PACE) financing. The former is a type of loan that

allows the recipient to replenish loan funds with the savings

accrued through the initial loan and then continually pull

from and replenish the fund with future investments. The lat-

ter allows property owners to finance up to 100% of the

upfront costs of a clean energy project. Chapter 5 investi-

gates building codes and the degree to which ARRA affected

building code policies adopted by state governments. Chapter

6 considers regulatory policies such as renewable portfolio

standards, which set a percentage of energy that must come

from renewables, and energy efficiency resource standards,

which set a percentage of total retail sales that must be met

by energy efficiency savings. The main arguments that come

out of this chapter are that mandatory policies are better than

voluntary ones, and states tend to adopt efficiency standards

when they face higher electricity prices and when they are

politically more liberal leaning states. Chapter 7 is a descrip-

tive overview of rate design, deregulation of electricity mar-

kets, and smart grids. Although the level of detail devoted to

each of these policy tools may be a bit too thin, the selection

of which tools to highlight is noteworthy. Deitchman fea-

tures a group of particularly innovative policies, some of

which are more mainstream (e.g., portfolio standards) but

others are less common and therefore less well known,

although increasingly regarded as cutting edge (e.g., PACE

financing).

In perhaps the most well-researched and convincing chap-

ter of the book, Chapter 8, Deitchman discusses state and

local economic development and challenges the false

dichotomy that policy makers must choose between meeting

741541ARPXXX10.1177/0275074017741541The American Review of Public AdministrationBook Review

book-review2017

Book Review

Deitchman, B. H. (2017). Climate and Clean Energy Policy: State Institutions and Economic Implications. London, England: Routledge. 144 pp.

$140.00. ISBN 9781138185845

Reviewed by: Sanya Carley and Michelle Graff, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

DOI: 10.1177/0275074017741541