Determinants of Pro‐Fracking Measure Adoption by New York Southern Tier Municipalities

New York municipalities passed more than 60 measures promoting high‐volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF), 2008–12. These policies and resolutions signaled to state officials that municipalities desired HVHF's promised economic benefits and were anxious for an end to the state's HVHF moratorium. They also may be evidence of municipalities proactively preparing for a drilling boom. Why did some jurisdictions adopt these measures while others did not? While scholarship suggests that policy adoption is facilitated when jurisdictions and citizens possess more resources, capacity appears to have a negative or negligible impact on pro‐HVHF action. Such action appears more likely when local actors anticipate HVHF's potential gains but have not previously experienced substantial drilling, perceive that the industry could be viable locally, and can access relevant policy examples. Some lessons from conventional adoption scholarship may not apply when policies are symbolic, advocacy may be elite‐driven, and mimicry is an important diffusion mechanism.     

Energy policy under austerity localism: what role for local authorities?

In the UK, local authorities (LAs) have been placed at the forefront of domestic energy-reduction strategies as the responsible actors for coordinating policy in this sector. Yet, there has been little research regarding the role of LAs in this policy agenda, and their abilities to bring together stakeholders in the successful design and implementation of strategies to reduce energy demands. The paper aims to fill this gap by highlighting the relevance and importance of the energy policy sphere to local government studies, building on the idea of resilient LAs within the context of tensions between the localism agenda and the actual implementation of energy efficiency polices. This is achieved through multiple rounds of semi-structured interviews with LA officers. Our findings reveal that LAs, operating under a localism agenda, lack the freedoms and resources from central government to meet the needs of multiple stakeholders, resorting to short-term policies.     

中国环境资源法、能源法的现在与未来

中国环境资源法、能源法已经从第一代迈向第二代,其现在及将来的发展趋势体现在以下几个方面:在环境法、能源法的伦理学基础上,从狭隘的人类中心主义转向人与自然和谐共存;在立法宗旨和目的上,将从经济增长优先转向循环经济和清洁生产;能源法将更加限制常规能源的使用和开采,激励可更新能源资源的投资和经营。中国环境资源法律和政策的总体趋势是更加绿色化,以顺应国内及国际的双重压力。     

激发企业工会活力的思考

贯彻《企业工会工作条例》,加强企业工会工作,是工会服从服务于党和国家工作大局的需要,是坚持走中国特色社会主义工会发展道路的需要,是扩大工会工作覆盖面、增强工会组织凝聚力的需要,是提高工会工作整体水平的需要。必须抓住贯彻《条例》的契机,找准企业工会工作的位置,围绕实现“十一五”规划,构建和谐企业、和谐社会,推动依靠工人阶级方针的落实,实施人才强国战略开展工作。要着力在增强企业工会活力的载体、制度、力量源泉、外部环境上动脑筋,想办法。     

培育民族地区能源支柱产业的理论及实证研究——以贵州省少数民族地区为例

在经济转轨、经济发展模式变化的形势下,遵循经济发展理论,结合少数民族地区的实际,发挥其能源资源禀赋优势,培育能源支柱产业,实现其资源优势最大化,是促进少数民族地区经济发展社会进步的必然选择。     

Opposing Energy Transitions: Modeling the Contested Nature of Energy Transitions in the Electricity Sector

Energy transitions are fiercely contested. The incumbents of the fossil‐ and nuclear‐based energy systems have much to lose from a transition to a sustainable and decentralized energy system. They therefore employ their material and political resources to reverse, halt, or slow down this transition. They also attempt to stop and reverse the decentralization of energy production. This article provides a framework that can be used to analyze the contestation that surrounds energy transitions. The analytical framework breaks apart the macro paths of energy transitions, and differentiates between three meso‐paths (political, economic‐technological, and legitimation), emphasizes the feedback processes between these paths, and acknowledges the crucial role that actors play in engendering these feedback processes. It uses Germany as a case study to illustrate the analytical model. It also provides hypotheses that will be tested in the subsequent contributions to this special issue.     

Local Renewable Energy Initiatives in Germany and Japan in a Changing National Policy Environment

Our article explores the contribution of local initiatives to the creation of path dependencies for energy transition in Germany and Japan in the face of resistance from entrenched incumbents at the national level. We use a process‐tracing methodology based partly on interviews with local participants. In particular, we explore the role of local initiatives in securing “socio‐political space” for the expansion of renewable energy (RE) and in embedding themselves in “ecosystems” of public and private institutions. German energy activists were more successful than their Japanese counterparts in expanding this space and creating positive feedback in part because they were able to build horizontal networks that anchored the energy transition firmly in local communities. Although problems with grid technology have led to retrenchment in both cases, Japanese activists' reliance on vertical networks has limited their ability to weather a backlash from national government and utility actors. Our study demonstrates the interaction of political, economic/technological, and legitimation paths to energy transition and highlights the importance of the latter two.     

产业联盟与“能源诅咒”:委内瑞拉与俄罗斯的现代化“宿命”

古典经济学认为,能源大规模出口的财富效应有助于推动出口国的经济增长,然而20世纪70年代以来世界主要能源出口国经济增长普遍放缓甚至停滞的残酷现实表明,丰富的能源很可能并非推动经济增长的"祝福",而是拖累经济的"诅咒"。为了探讨诱使能源出口国陷入"能源诅咒"的原因及其作用机制,本文基于产业联盟理论建立了涵盖能源出口国现代化起点、政体类型、出口条件的分析框架,重点分析上述三个因素对能源产业联盟实力强弱的影响。通过对能源出口国主要政治与经济数据的定量分析以及对委内瑞拉和俄罗斯陷入"能源诅咒"的案例研究,本文发现,能源出口国的现代化起点较晚、实行威权政体、出口条件改善催生了强大的能源产业联盟,并巩固和扩大了其相较于其他产业联盟的实力差距。强大的能源产业联盟贡献了巨额税汇、提供了畸形补贴、左右了选举结果,由此诱使政府与政治家对其形成了病态的依赖,限制了其他产业的发展并最终拖累了经济增长。     

North Korea’s Resurgence and China’s Rise: Implications for the Future of Northeast Asian Security

Today, Northeast Asia’s security situation is changing rapidly. North Korea is reviving and China’s power is growing at an alarming rate. While the U.S. continues to suffer diplomatically and militarily in the Middle East and from international terrorism, China’s and North Korea’s power is likely to futher increase, polarizing the Northeast Asian security structure, with South Korea, Japan (and Taiwan) all allied with the U.S. versus North Korea allied with China. The liberal democracies should pursue peace with North Korea and China to preclude the situation from aggravating, but should be ready in the longer term to meet, in diverse ways including strengthening their alliances, the challenges posed by rising powers.