Thirty states have adopted renewable portfolio standards (RPSs) that set targets for renewable energy generation by mandating electric power utilities obtain a minimum percentage of their power from renewable sources. To date, there have been a number of studies that have consistently found that...

Thirty states have adopted renewable portfolio standards (RPSs) that set targets for renewable energy generation by mandating that electric power utilities obtain a minimum percentage of their power from renewable sources. Our synthetic control model finds that states with RPSs experience...

Natural gas venting, flaring and leaking (VF&L) are closely intertwined environmental policy issues for U.S. shale oil and gas operations. In this paper, we lay out an agenda for researchers and policymakers. We describe why VF&L are closely related, both physically and in terms of policy. We...

We investigate effects of plausibly exogenous variation in the value of oil and natural gas production in local economies on self-employment in the United States. We find that self-employment is procyclical, i.e. self-employment increases during a business cycle expansion and is reduced during a...

State-regulated investor-owned utilities serve over 70 percent of electricity to final end-use retail consumers in the U.S. Prior to the 1990s, all states used a “cost of service (COS)” regulation regime in which investor-owned utilities were allowed to recover prudently incurred costs plus...