Sarah Banas Mills

State energy policy in the Trump Era: insights from public opinion

In light of President Trump’s decision to withdraw the USA from the Paris Accord and reverse a number of federal climate policies, many states and localities have pledged to increase their activities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This article discusses the policies that they are likely to consider, and uses national survey data to ascertain whether policymakers are likely to find support for each of these policy approaches among the general public.

Wind Energy and Rural Community Sustainability

Because it is a carbon-free source of electricity, wind energy is often unquestioned as an environmentally sustainable technology. But is this technology sustainable when considered within the context of the rural communities in which it is often sited? This paper uses survey data from paired rural communities with and without utility-scale wind energy projects to understand the economic and social impacts of wind energy development on these predominantly agricultural communities. It finds clear economic benefits to the communities that host wind turbines—namely, that wind developers’ payments to landowners are largely re-invested in farming operations, leading to economic stability and increasing expectations that a younger generation will want to stay on the farm. The social impacts of wind development are more nuanced, and depend upon the windfarm’s business model. Specifically, windfarms are least disruptive of the social structure in rural communities when wind developers employ a business model that gives more community members a direct financial stake in the project.

Public and Local Government Leader Opinions on Environmental Federalism Comparing Issues and National Contexts

How should regulatory authority over environmental policy issues be allocated? While there has been previous work on public preferences regarding environmental federalism, less attention has been paid to the opinions of local government officials, who are often on the front lines testing the limits (or not) of their authority. Using survey data of public and local official opinion about environmental federalism, this article finds that local government officials often see a significantly different role for national, subnational, and local government than their constituents, even after accounting for demographic differences between the groups. This article draws on data from two subnational jurisdictions in different countries (Michigan, United States and Ontario, Canada) and finds that the differences between the general public and local officials are durable even with a change in national context.