Even for the environment, context matters! States, households, and residential energy consumption

Abstract

This study adopts a multi-level approach to examine the extent to which state-and household-level factors shape residential energy consumption in the United States, focusing on efficiency improvement and affluence. Analyzing the 2009 Residential Energy Consumption Survey, state-level energy efficiency data from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), and other sources, we find that state context significantly influences energy consumption at the household level. Households in states scoring high on energy efficiency consume significantly less residential energy than those in states scoring low on the measure. At the household level, the analysis reveals mixed relationships between investment in energy efficiency technologies and residential energy consumption, as some measures of efficiency technology are negatively related to residential energy consumption, others are positively related to it. In regard to affluence, state-level measures do not emerge as significant predictors of residential energy consumption. At the household level, however, affluence drives residential energy consumption, which, in turn, is a significant driver of carbon dioxide emissions. Our study makes an important contribution to the social scientific literature on energy consumption, illuminating distinct relationships at different levels. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that simultaneously examines the impacts of factors measured at both the household (micro) and state (meso) levels.

Study on regional differences and influencing factors of energy consumption in China

“…11 Adua and Clark revealed mixed relationships between investment in energy efficiency technologies and residential energy consumption, as some measures of efficiency technology are negatively related to residential energy consumption, while others are positively related to it. 12 Achour and Belloumi indicated that the overall effect of economic output, transportation intensity, population scale, and transportation structure on energy consumption is positive, whereas the overall effect of energy intensity is negative. It was shown that energy intensity played the dominant role in decreasing energy consumption during the study period.…”

State policy and environmental management: examining the intermediate mechanisms of ecological modernization

“…Quantitative research at the sub-national level also presents challenges for the general propositions of ecological modernization theory (Adua and Clark 2019, Adua et al 2016, Lutzenhiser and Hackett 1993. For instance, Adua et al (2016) find that household income, analogous to national income per capita, drives higher CO 2 emissions from residential energy consumption in the United States.…”

“…Prior quantitative analyses of ecological modernization arguments focus on (1) how economic development (usually measured as GDP per capita) and other indicators of modernity are directly related to specific environmental outcomes (e.g., Jorgenson 2006, Jorgenson and Clark 2012, Thombs 2018, Thombs and Huang 2019, York et al 2003a, 2004, or (2) the impacts of efficiency improvement on environmental quality (Adua 2010, Adua and Clark 2019, Adua, York, and Schuelke-Leech 2016, Goklany 2009, Grant, Jorgenson, and Longhofer 2020. While assessing these direct relationships is important, the ecological modernization perspective proposes that economic development facilitates several intermediate mechanisms by the state, corporate entities, and civil society that lead to reductions in environmental harms.…”