Category: In Print

In Print

A collaborative research team’s work on energy sovereignty has recently been published in the Routledge Handbook of Energy Democracy. Co-authors of “Energy democracy in practice: Centering energy sovereignty in rural communities and Tribal Nations” include Chelsea Schelly, Valoree Gagnon, Andrew Fiss, Elise Matz, Rebecca Ong and Kathy Halvorsen of Michigan Tech, along with Douglas Bessette, Laura Schmitt Olabisi and Kristin Arola of Michigan State University.

Learn more about the work via the Michigan Tech Digital Commons.

In Print

Adam Wellstead is the lead author of a study published in Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability.

The paper, titled “Finding the sweet spot in climate policy: balancing stakeholder engagement with bureaucratic autonomy,” discusses the role of bureaucratic autonomy and stakeholder engagement in the climate change policy process and the “sweet spot” between both — which differs from country to country depending on administrative tradition and policy style.

Robbert Biesbroek of Wageningen University in The Netherlands is a co-author of the paper.

On the Road

Shan Zhou (SS) presented her paper “The Interplay between Renewable Portfolio Standard and Voluntary Green Power Market in the United States” in the session “Determinants and Challenges of Environmental Policy” at the the 78th Annual Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) Conference, which was held virtually April 14-18.

This paper evaluates the efficacy of utility-based voluntary green power programs implemented in conjunction with government-led (mandatory) renewable energy policies.

In Print

Professor Emeritus Barry D. Solomon (SS) and Shan Zhou (SS) published the article “Renewable Portfolio Standards: Do Voluntary Goals vs. Mandatory Standards Make a Difference?” In Review of Policy Research.

This paper investigates whether an obligation to meet a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) target in U.S. states affects the policy effectiveness. A voluntary RPS target can serve as a political device for signaling a commitment to certain goals, though there is no penalty if the goal is not met.

Alternatively, mandatory RPS targets have varying stringency and uneven enforcement. Our results indicate that the compulsoriness of a state RPS is an insignificant determinant of RPS‐related renewable electricity capacity additions. Factors other than compulsoriness are more important in influencing renewable electricity development, such as state political ideology, income, electricity price and electric market deregulation status.

In Print

Don Lafreniere (SS/GLRC) and an interdisciplinary group of students recently published an article titled “Schools as Vectors of Infectious Disease Transmission during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic” in the journal Cartographica: The International Journal of Geographic Information and Geovisualization.

The article outlines how to use census and health microdata to follow infectious disease transmission between public school children during a pandemic. The paper leans on data created by public contributors to the Keweenaw Time Traveler project. The towns of Calumet and Laurium served as the case study.

In Print

New publication on the history of oil palm plantations

A new article exploring the history of the first oil palm plantations by Jonathan Robins (SS) has been published in the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies.

The article examines the economic, political, and environmental factors that contributed to the early growth of the oil palm industry, which is today the world’s largest supplier of vegetable oil

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-southeast-asian-studies/article/abs/shallow-roots-the-early-oil-palm-industry-in-southeast-asia-18481940/EB9B53BBAF6698ED0EE151BD11CF93E2