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California State University, Northridge CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE The Effects of Government Impact on Climate Change A graduate project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Master of Public Administration in Public Sector Management and Leadership By Jian Yu Huang August 2020 The graduate project of Jian Yu Huang is approved: _______________________________________ __________________ Dr. Paul D. Krivonos Date _______________________________________ __________________ Dr. Linda-marie Sundstrom Date ________________________________________ __________________ Dr. Henrik Palasani-Minassians, Chair Date California State University, Northridge ii Table of Contents Signature Page ii Abstract iv Introduction 1 Policy Background 5 Stakeholders 7 Literature Review 10 Research Design (Methodology and Data Collection) 15 Design 15 Methodology and Data Collection 16 Sampling 16 Limitations 17 Background 18 Conclusion 23 References 27 iii Abstract The Effects of Government Impact on Climate Change By Jian Yu Huang Master of Public Administration in Public Sector Management and Leadership Climate change has been reported to occur for many decades, and the changes have been documented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has demonstrated an increasing global temperature trend of 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade due to greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions have been produced by human activities, such as using aerosol products, burning fossil fuels, farming livestock and agriculture, and manufacturing in factories. Acts like the Clean Air Act and Clean Power Plan seek to regulate the effects on the environment and mitigate the effects of climate change. The purpose of this project is to determine the impact of a specific climate change policy in the United States. The research design will examine the effects of the cap and trade policy on the states participating in the program, in terms of the carbon dioxide emissions, electric generation, and economic impact. iv Introduction In striving to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from existing fossil fuel power plants, the Environmental Protection Agency introduced the Clean Power Plan; the Clean Power Plan had a timeline and goal of reducing the emissions to below 2005 levels by 30% in 2030 (Chen, Tanaka, & Siddiqui, 2018). The Clean Power Plan, which was developed in 2014 and enacted in 2015 under President Obama’s administration, imposed the rules for greenhouse gas emissions and power plants (Wallach, 2019). Through the Clean Power Plan, the mission was to provide regulations for the entire power sectors; the Environmental Protection Agency set emission rate targets state-by-state and identified building blocks of technological strategies for states to adhere to meet required reductions of emissions (Murray, Pizer, & Ross, 2015). However, this has since changed when the President Trump administration came into office; the Clean Power Plan, unfortunately, became inactive and no longer strictly upheld, and the Clean Air Act, which was designed to protect the general population of people by protecting their health and the environment they live in from air pollution, was also no longer upheld and regulated by the federal government (Wallach, 2019). The Clean Air Act of 1970 was one of the first environmental laws that were developed and implemented in efforts to regulate the amount of air pollution on a national level, with subsequent amendments that were developed to further control produced emissions from automobiles, investigate air pollution resulting from all transportation, and address problems of toxic air pollutants, the depletion of the ozone, and acid rain, and (Oren, 2010). 32 states in the United States have developed and released their action plans to address the climate change effects and make efforts to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions (Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, 2020). The local government acknowledged that climate change 1 can result in serious issues, requiring actions and collective effort, especially when the general public’s health is at risk (Deetjen, Conger, Leibowicz, & Webber, 2018). However, even though climate action plans have been developed and implemented on a local governmental level, Deetjen et al. (2018) found deficiencies in climate change plans. While the cities in the United States addressed transportation and building quality, they also neglected to focus on the urban form, and disincentives for automobiles (Deetjen et al., 2018). Additionally, findings from Lepitzki and Axsen (2018) demonstrated that the most stringent policies were necessary to achieve greenhouse gas emission targets. To effectively contribute, the local government must reevaluate and cohesively implement their climate action plans to target a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and make a significant impact on climate change (Deetjen, et al., 2018). Climate change can demonstrate impacts on the environment, economy, and lives of animals, plants, human beings, and other living beings (Xin, Peng, & Sun, 2019). Greenhouse gas emissions that are produced by carbon dioxide from our activities daily such as public transportation, driving a car, or using air conditioning can contribute to climate change (Deetjen et al., 2018). These are also known as emissions from urban areas. Greenhouse gas emissions from urban areas account for 70% of the emissions in the United States, which include emissions directly from transportation fuels or indirectly from power sectors (Deetjen et al., 2018). Greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels and other hazardous pollutants have been found to contribute to an increase in cardiovascular and respiratory diseases as well as mortalities (Cushing et al., 2018). The increase in greenhouse gas emissions have been posited to also increase in the average temperatures of our planet; the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has reported the average temperatures to be on the rise since they have been 2 documenting and making records of all the changes in the global temperatures every year, and every decade (Delmotte-Masson et al., 2019). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has produced special reports for the past two decades on how the average global temperatures have been the warmest ever since the beginning of data collection and recording on the temperatures. During the President Obama administration, they centralized their focus on sustainability, and sought to protect the environment, and limit the production of the greenhouse gases; they sought to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 17% from 2005 emissions by 2020 (Burtraw, Linn, Palmer, & Paul, 2014). During the President Obama administration, the United States was also one of many countries that participated in the Paris Agreement, making significant and substantial efforts to reduce the carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions, which in turn would potentially reduce the negative impacts resulting from climate change (Wallach, 2019). With the United States participating in the agreement, all participating countries accounted for 97% of the carbon dioxide emissions (Holtsmark & Weitzman, 2020). However, this focus shifted when President Trump’s administration came into the term. The President Trump administration went a different course to address climate change and strove to make plans in withdrawing the United States entirely from the Paris Agreement (Sakharov, 2018). The current administration’s view has the potential to significantly influence the general population of people to become more aware of climate change and to also address it. With the shift in focus from the previous term, addressing climate change was not the top priority on the federal level, a national plan was not implemented or heavily enforced. Although there is no federal policy that is implemented across all the states to address the environmental and climate changes, this is contrasted on the local government level. Cities and 3 states have individually begun to participate in programs that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For example, with the cap and trade policy, 9 states have already been participating in reducing greenhouse gas emissions through the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI, 2019). Each state will be responsible for determining which climate policy would be suitable for their people and power generators if they all produce the same results. The Environmental Protection Agency can also initiate their standards for providing opportunities for states to improve their emission reductions. Stationary sources, starting with the generators that produce electricity, are responsible for about 40% of the carbon dioxide emissions in the states (Burtraw et al., 2014). The actions to take begin with more states coming together to participate in climate change policies such as the cap and trade policy, in efforts to achieve carbon dioxide emission reductions. The purpose of this project is to examine the environmental and economic impact and effects of a climate change policy that can be implemented on the local government level since individual states have already begun addressing the issue of climate change. The cap and trade policy aims to reduce greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide emissions. This project aims to evaluate its effects on reducing greenhouse gases as well as whether the policy can contribute to the economy. 4 Policy Background In November 2016, the Paris Climate Agreement was enacted, with
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