Abstract:Using federalism as a guide, this research explores the conflicted, complementary and unique natural gas policy paths of the U.S. federal government, Wyoming and Colorado and analyzes how policies facilitate and respond to booms. Federal policymaking has consistently focused on gas ownership, leasing, interstate dispute resolution and fiscal mechanisms to stimulate and manage development. At the state level, policies are designed to enable exploration and production while protecting fuel mineral rights, minimizing waste and generating revenue. During the most recent gas boom, driven in part by technological advances like fracking, policies are being tested from local to national levels. Colorado demonstrates that states can balance economic benefits with environmental and social costs of gas booms, thus providing an example for other gas producing states. Whether states serve as stewards or laggards is a function of federalism and choice, but the direction of federal and state natural gas policy remains a long-term play.
State legislative decision making on natural gas policy has become a balancing act, as legislators are forced to grapple with tensions between economically beneficial policies and environmental impacts. Despite increased public attention to the benefits and costs related to hydraulic fracturing, there has been little scholarly attention paid to how policy framing affects legislator behavior on this issue. We analyze recorded votes on bills relating to natural gas policy in Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico between 1999 and 2008; a time period spanning the recent boom. Using a novel database of bill frames, we create a ratio measure that accounts for the proportion of environmental to economic arguments within each piece of legislation. We find status quo–challenging, anti‐development policies can receive bipartisan support, as long as economic frames balance or are greater than environmental frames. Framing natural gas as a win‐win scenario where economic benefit and environmental protection can be achieved simultaneously is an effective legislative strategy. Using the case of natural gas policy, this study demonstrates bill framing substantively affects state legislator vote choice and implies bipartisan compromise is possible given the right balance of frames.
Historically, states in the Midwest have enacted policies favorable to organized labor. This has changed in recent years with several Midwest states passing severe restrictions on the collective bargaining rights of workers. This research focuses on one case where collective bargaining restrictions were overturned in the state of Ohio through direct democracy. Coalitions and policy narratives were identified through the scope of the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) and Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) in an attempt to fully understand the repeal of Ohio Senate Bill 5, a law that restricted collective bargaining for public employees. Analysis shows that the coalition in favor of repeal, We Are Ohio, formed a broader coalition and a more general, more effective, narrative than the coalition in favor of the collective bargaining restrictions, Building a Better Ohio. We Are Ohio argued that Senate Bill 5 was an overreach by greedy politicians that would hurt the middle class. Building a Better Ohio argued that Senate Bill 5 was a necessary measure that would help balance state and local budgets. This research demonstrates a useful application of the ACF and NPF to direct democracy in hopes that future research will be done using these frameworks on direct democracy. Furthermore, this research demonstrates how successfully expanding the conflict in direct democracy results in a larger coalition that is needed to win the policy narrative. iii To my wife, Annette, for her continued support and encouragement iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my committee, Dr. Andrew Kear and Dr. David Jackson for taking the time to help me progress as a writer and a student. I would have been lost without your expertise. I would especially like to thank my adviser, Dr. Andrew Kear, for dedicating much of his time to guiding me in this project. Finally, I would like to thank my father, Dominic T. Wells, for reading every draft of this work and for always stressing the importance of education. v
Federal and state policies have historically privileged fossil fuel development in the western US. Presently, these abundant conventional energy sources remain important economic contributors to western state and federal coffers but rising energy demand, calls for energy independence, and climate change concerns bring conventional energy into conflict with next generation renewable energy. In the open policy terrain afforded by federalism, western states are leading the way through this intercurrence, or intervening time, when politics simultaneously promote conventional and renewable energy policies. Our central research goal is to chronicle and explain this energy policy intercurrence through the conceptual lenses of resource abundance, path dependence, and federalism. The state of western US energy policy will remain in flux as the intercurrence of two energy policy paradigms plays out through the first half of the 21st century and western states remain at the policy nexus.
Federal and state policies have historically privileged fossil fuel development in the western US. Presently, these abundant conventional energy sources remain important economic contributors to western state and federal coffers but rising energy demand, calls for energy independence, and climate change concerns bring conventional energy into conflict with next generation renewable energy. In the open policy terrain afforded by federalism, western states are leading the way through this intercurrence, or intervening time, when politics simultaneously promote conventional and renewable energy policies. Our central research goal is to chronicle and explain this energy policy intercurrence through the conceptual lenses of resource abundance, path dependence, and federalism. The state of western US energy policy will remain in flux as the intercurrence of two energy policy paradigms plays out through the first half of the 21st century and western states remain at the policy nexus.
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