Carbon Geography. The political economy of congressional support for legislation intended to mitigate greenhouse gas production

Journal Article · Fri Apr 20 04:00:00 EDT 2012 · Economic Inquiry

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-7295.2012.00462.x· OSTI ID:1068634

CRAGG, MICHAEL I.; ZHOU, YUYU; GURNEY, KEVIN; KAHN, MATTHEW E.

Over the last five years, the U.S Congress has voted on several pieces of legislation intended to sharply reduce the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. Given that climate change is a world public bad, standard economic logic would predict that the United States would -free rideII and wait for other nations to reduce their emissions. Within the Congress, there are clear patterns to who votes in favor of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. This paper presents a political economy analysis of the determinants of pro-greenII votes on such legislation. Conservatives consistently vote against such legislation. Controlling for a Representative’s ideology, representatives from richer districts and districts with a lower per-capita carbon dioxide footprint are more likely to vote in favor of climate change mitigation legislation. Representatives from districts where industrial emissions represent a larger share of greenhouse gas emissions are more likely to vote no.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1068634
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-85279; KP1703030
• Journal Information: Economic Inquiry, Journal Name: Economic Inquiry Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 51; ISSN 0095-2583
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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