The US Political Economy of Climate Change: Impacts of the “Fracking” Boom on State-Level Climate Policies

Abstract

In the face of the intensifying global climate crisis, the US has failed to implement comprehensive policies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. During the 2000s, the shale oil and gas extraction (i.e., “fracking”) revolution highlighted the American energy economy. Is the fracking boom partially to blame for US lagging on climate policy? Political economy theory suggests that economic resources are primary drivers of policy outcomes. In this paper, I originally evaluate that claim in the context of the American states, the governments most powerful to mitigate emissions while the federal government faces gridlock. I first introduce an original measure of one state-level climate policy: adoption of the low-emission vehicle (LEV) policy from 1991 to 2015. I then frame the US fracking boom of the mid-to-late 2000s as a natural experiment, employing a difference-in-difference design to compare the effects of fracking on two climate policies across the American states – LEV and renewable electricity policy. Results yield evidence of a causal impact of the fracking boom on state LEV adoption and more suggestive evidence of an impact on renewable electricity mandates. I conclude by arguing that efforts to evaluate the influence of business on policy should account for “structural power” mechanisms.

Making the UNFCCC fit for purpose: A research agenda on vested interests and green spiralling

“…Future research could, for instance, cross-fertilize scholarship on political economy and governance with literature on interest group politics (Zacher, 2023). A better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the divestment movement may be one avenue for future research to understand how pressure can influence norms and material factors (Ayling & Gunningham, 2017).…”

“…What is holding action back is therefore not so much lack of voting rules or little focus on implementation at the UNFCCC, but rather the strong position of vested interests, which underlie all processes. Specifically, concentrated economic interests that seek to preserve the status quo hold back climate action both through influencing weak outcomes at the UNFCCC and through blocking or weakening implementation of climate action at the domestic level (Nasiritousi, 2017; Stoddard et al., 2021; Zacher, 2023). In other words, unless the role of vested interests is addressed in reform proposals, other reform efforts will make little progress on making the UNFCCC fit for purpose.…”

“…Such vested interests exert undue influence on climate policymaking by blocking or watering down climate policies at different levels of governance (Grasso, 2019; Moe, 2015; Newell & Paterson, 1998). This often takes place through political lobbying, greenwashing and by funding disinformation campaigns (Nasiritousi, 2017; Stoddard et al., 2021; Zacher, 2023). Such vested interests ‘have strong incentives to act as gatekeepers of policy institutions enabling the continuation of fossil‐fuel‐based industrial practices’ (Vormedal et al., 2023, p. 1).…”