Short Circuiting Policy examines climate and energy politics over several decades to understand why US states are not on track to meet the climate crisis. It argues that electric utilities and clean energy companies battle over policy, and their relative power explains why US states have stopped expanding-and even started weakening-their renewable energy policies. The book explains key US clean energy policies, including Renewable Portfolio Standards and net metering, in detail.

In 1999, Texas passed a landmark clean energy law, beginning a groundswell of new policies that promised to make the US a world leader in renewable energy. As Leah Stokes shows in Short Circuiting Policy, however, that policy did not lead to momentum in Texas, which failed to implement its solar laws or clean up its electricity system. Examining clean energy laws in Texas, Kansas, Arizona, and Ohio over a thirty-year time frame, Stokes argues that organized combat between advocate and opponent interest groups is central to explaining why states are not on track to address the climate crisis. She tells the political history of our energy institutions, explaining how fossil fuel companies and electric utilities have promoted climate denial and delay. Stokes further explains the limits of policy feedback theory, showing the ways that interest groups drive retrenchment through lobbying, public opinion, political parties and the courts. More than a history of renewable energy policy in modern America, Short Circuiting Policy offers a bold new argument about how the policy process works, and why seeming victories can turn into losses when the opposition has enough resources to roll back laws.

List of figures Acknowledgments List of abbreviations 1. Introduction 2. When new policies fail to create a new politics 3. An institutional history of electricity politics and climate inaction 4. Policy feedback takes hold 5. A Direct line to legislators and regulators 6. Retrenchment by a thousand cuts 7. Regulatory capture thwarts feedback 8. When the fog of enactment lifts 9. Conclusion Appendix Notes References Index