| Renewable energy remains in the forefront of environmental awareness, public policy and national security. Almost all of the variation in the renewable energy generated could be associated with the states themselves, rather than any policy success. There was little variation in energy generated across time or within the states. The initial conclusion regarding state level total renewable energy generation is that it is a story of legacy federal programs, including many hydroelectric power plants.;Narrowing the view to solar and wind generation instead of total renewable energy provides new insights: the predictive power of the states sui generis is eliminated; providing a tax break or lowering the marginal cost for renewable energy successfully increased wind and solar energy generation. Most of the growth has appeared on the Pacific coast, along with 10 states in the Midwest "wind belt.".;Predicting why a policy was adopted was difficult. As most of the policies did not affect energy generation, there was no "success measure" to drive adoption. The only variables with consistent predictive power toward adoption were the presence of the policy in neighboring states and average wage levels. |
