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Barriers to the Implementation of Renewable Energy Politics in the American States

Charles D and Sandra D

This paper relies on online surveys and documentary sources to analyze the implementation of renewable energy policies in American states. State energy program managers indicate that net metering exists in 76% of the states responding to the survey while the mix of clean energy programs varies substantially from one state to another. Moderate regulatory and technological obstacles to implementation include both technological and regulatory policies such as inadequate transmission lines, limited storage capacity, endangered species protection policy and the lack of smart grids. The most influential policy actors are the governor and other state officials, utilities and environmental groups. Overall, the results suggest that state policy research dealing with clean energy is consistent with much of the state environmental protection literature in terms of the relationships between political, economic and technological variables and program decisions.