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A desire to shift from fossil fuels to non-carbon-emitting energy sources has become an imperative supported by national, state, and local policies. In the U.S., a diverse array of policies at multiple levels of government have helped the solar industry achieve exponential growth. These advancements, however, are mediated by local implementation processes, which might be expected to have a large impact in the context of U.S. federalism. This paper investigates the effects of two countervailing forces – policy incentives and implementation disincentives – on residential solar adoption in New Jersey. The New Jersey case study includes two complementary analyses designed to illuminate policy incentives and implementation disincentives, respectively. The first is an interrupted time-series analysis that evaluates the effects of federal and statewide renewable energy policies on residential photovoltaic (PV) growth. The second is a set of semi-structured in-depth interviews with solar industry experts, providing implementation insights from the solar industry and indirectly portraying residential customers' experiences. Results confirm that market-based instruments at the state-level play a crucial role in increasing the relative financial advantage of these systems and, thus, the attraction of residential solar PV to adopters. In addition, the behaviours of future adopters and the valuation of this technology as an investment in the housing market will impact the spread of residential PV systems in the future. Unfortunately, case study findings also confirm that an absence of standardized solar application procedures and outdated interconnection standards is a significant drag on the adoption rate. This highlights a need for policymakers to place greater emphasis on local implementation pathways in solar policy design. Options to achieve this include more robust ex-ante coordination among state and local levels of government and with industry to standardize implementation processes. While U.S. federalism may at times be constraining, our results suggest that even minimal levels of ex-ante coordination can lead to implementation gains that will have a large impact on solar diffusion outcomes. Federal and state-level financial incentives significantly impact the residential photovoltaic solar adoption rate. The absence of streamlined interconnection application procedures and outdated interconnection standards for the grid limit the residential PV adoption in New Jersey. Our findings underline the importance of paying equal attention to both policy design and to technical standards to underpin implementation processes, especially in the decentralized context of U.S. federalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many governments, businesses, and institutions are committing to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, a goal and process known as deep decarbonization. Achieving this goal in the United States requires a national, economy-wide transformation in energy production and use in five sectors: electricity, transportation, industry, land-based carbon sinks, and buildings. All of these sectors interact with planning for the built environment and land use, so planning scholars and practitioners have many opportunities to engage policymakers working on national-level decarbonization strategies. This article analyzes the consequences of deep decarbonization for the future speed, scale, scope, role, and relevance of planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Only when decent people band together to act in concert to install proper societal mechanisms and to support one another will we be able to reap the fruits of the marvelous new technologies and avert technologic catastrophes and environmental disasters. Engineers, in particular, need to think carefully about how they can act jointly to help one another to practice their profession properly.” —Unger [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The failure of finance, environmental and management executives to communicate with each other has lead to a number of corporate problems including environmental deterioration, increased expenditures and minimal revenue gains. Despite the government's intensified campaign against environmental contamination, pollution problems have continued to pose serious challenges in managing lead times and allocating financial resources. To address these problems, executives and rank-and-file employees must be taught how to be efficient communicators.

Environmental regulations continuously evolve with the discovery of new information and as environmental problems worsen. Long-lived facilities such as electric power plants would benefit much from proactive environmental investments. However, current environmental programs are perceived to encourage suboptimal compliance strategies and fail to anticipate future environmental risks.

Many electric utilities are undergoing massive restructuring in response to increased domestic competition. In light of such actions, the federal government should reassess its energy regulatory programs to meet the increased emphasis on regional diversity. Studies have shown that each utility's choice of fuel options is largely influenced by its regional resources. Consequently, the federal government should develop a flexible regulatory policy to meet the specific requirements of electric utilities.

US electric utility companies exhibit divergence in their capital stock, which influence the effort of reducing pollutant effusions regionally. A simple system level emissions model is introduced which points out cost-efficient pollution reduction strategies for each region among alternative choices. Solutions vary across regions and pollutants. Policies formulated to lessen environmental effects from power production should be familiar with capacity characteristics.