000			02401 a2200169 4500
999			_c26219 _d26219
020			_a9780262036344
082			_a363.7387 _bTHO-C
100			_aThomson, Vivian E.
245			_aClimate of Capitulation _b: An Insider's Account of State Power in A Coal Nation
260			_c2017 _aCambridge _bMIT Press
300			_aix, 242p
504			_aInclude Bibliography and Index
520			_aHow power is wielded in environmental policymaking at the state level, and how to redress the ingrained favouritism toward coal and electric utilities. The United States has pledged to the world community a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 per cent below 2005 levels in 2025. Because much of this reduction must come from electric utilities, especially coal-fired power plants, coal states will make or break the U.S. commitment to emissions reduction. In Climate of Capitulation, Vivian Thomson offers an insider's account of how power is wielded in environmental policymaking at the state level. Thomson, a former member of Virginia's State Air Pollution Control Board, identifies a "climate of capitulation" in state government--a deeply rooted favouritism toward coal and electric utilities in states' air pollution policies. Thomson narrates three cases involving coal and air pollution from her time on the Air Board. She illuminates the overt and covert power struggles surrounding air pollution limits for a coal-fired power plant just across the Potomac from Washington, for a controversial new coal-fired electrical generation plant in coal country, and for coal dust pollution from truck traffic in a country hollow. Thomson links Virginia's climate of capitulation with campaign donations that make legislators politically indebted to coal and electric utility interests, a traditionalistic political culture tending to inertia and a part-time legislature that depended on outside groups for information and bill drafting. Extending her analysis to fifteen other coal-dependent states, Thomson offers policy reforms aimed at mitigating the ingrained biases toward coal and electric utilities in states' air pollution policymaking.
650			_aPolitics and government _vEnergy policy _vEnergy industries--Political activity _zUnited States
650			_aEnvironmental Policy _vAir-Pollution--Government policy _vCoal-fired power plants _vElectric utilities _zVirginia
942			_2ddc _cBK