Professor Shan Zhou and Professor Emeritus Barry D. Solomon published a paper, “Do renewable portfolio standards in the United States stunt renewable electricity development beyond mandatory targets?” in Energy Policy. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301421520301336
![Drone view of camp setup on ice.](https://blogs.mtu.edu/social-sciences/files/2020/03/Screen-Shot-2020-03-04-at-8.21.37-AM.png)
L’Anse is the third community in the Upper Peninsula to install a community solar array. The community partnered with Michigan Tech’s Alternative Energy Enterprise team and Department of Social Sciences faculty and students, as well as WPPI Energy and WUPPDR, to make the project a reality.
Read the full story on mtu.edu/news
Siona Beaudoin, a junior at Lake Linden-Hubbell High School, spent the past year working on a research project with Tara Bal (CFRES) Angie Carter, Social Sciences (SS). Her project focus was on the invasive fruit fly Spotted Wing Drosophila, Drosophila suzukii (SWD) and the public’s knowledge of SWD, along with their berry picking/foraging practices.
She presented her research at the Wisconsin, Upper Peninsula of Michigan Regional Junior Science and Humanities Symposium in February and qualified for the national symposium.
Recently, she virtually defended her research in the Life Sciences Poster Competition at the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium where she was awarded third place. Beaudoin is currently summarizing the research to be published with Bal and Carter.
Adam Wellstead published again! Globalization and Health (2020)– “The north-south policy divide in transnational healthcare: a comparative review of policy research on medical tourism” by A. Virani, A. Wellstead and M. Howlett. Open access. https://bit.ly/3cHwR6m
Mark Rhodes has been elected to the Executive Board of the Cultural Geography Specialty Group (CGSG). As the seventh largest of the 76 American Association of Geographers specialty groups, CGSG provides a network for its 500+ members while also organizing symposia, sponsored-sessions, marquee speakers and socials, granting awards and elevating the spatially of cultural perspectives throughout the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. Rhodes will serve a two-year term as Nominations Director.
The Department of Social Sciences announced its 2019-20 Undergraduate Research Awards.
- Outstanding Senior Award: Jessica Berryman and Charles Fugate
- Community-Base Research Prize: Angela Gutierrez and Timothy Stone
- Undergraduate Research Award: Alannah M. Woodring and Lynette S Webber
The students will be recognized at the Department of Social Sciences Class of 2019-20 Virtual Commencement Celebration on May 1. Congratulations for these extraordinary achievements.
Alumnus Brad Barnett (EEP PhD), Adam Wellstead, and Michael Howlett (Simon Fraser University) published a paper in the journal Energy Research and Social Science titled The evolution of Wisconsin’s woody biofuel policy: Policy layering and dismantling through dilution.
This paper examines the intersection between changing goals, actors and institutions in designing Wisconsin’s woody biopower policy mix.
Professor Emerita Mary Durfee (SS) published a commentary “Existential Security: Lessons from the Pandemic and Arctic,” on the website for the Arctic Institute in Washington, D.C.
Adam Wellstead co-authored a piece with Paul Cairney titled Who can you trust during the coronavirus crisis? based off their paper, The Role of Trust in Policymaking.
Trust is essential during a crisis. It is necessary for cooperation. Cooperation helps people coordinate action, to reduce the need for imposition. It helps reduce uncertainty in a complex world. It facilitates social order and cohesiveness. In a crisis, almost-instant choices about who to trust or distrust make a difference between life and death.
Shan Zhou (SS) and Professor Emeritus Barry Solomon (SS) recently published “Do renewable portfolio standards in the United States stunt renewable electricity development beyond mandatory targets?” in the journal Energy Policy. This article explores the question of whether the renewable portfolio standard (RPS) serves as a floor or a cap on renewable electricity capacity deployment in the U.S.
A panel dataset from 1998 to 2017 is constructed for 28 states that have adopted a mandatory RPS in this timeframe. Using hybrid random effects negative binomial regression models, the authors find that when constrained by renewable electricity potential capacity, more stringent RPSs are significantly associated with a lower level of non-RPS related renewable electricity capacity additions. This negative effect of the RPS on beyond RPS compliance renewable electricity development is weakened by the abundance of renewable energy resources.