Organizational Determinants of Compliance with Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards

摘要煤炭公用事业和炼油行业被认为对美国近40%的温室气体（GHG）排放负有责任。尽管行业层面的趋势已经得到了广泛的研究，但我们对单个设施或工厂在温室气体排放趋势中的作用知之甚少。该项目解决了三个研究问题：哪个燃煤电厂和炼油厂的排放水平最高，每个工作岗位排放的温室气体最多？哪一组组织因素导致了工厂层面温室气体排放的差异？我们如何解释工厂对州一级法规的反应差异？为了回答这些问题，该项目将使用由环境保护署（EPA）发布的关于单个设施及其温室气体排放的独特数据集。该项目将采用多变量技术以及模糊集分析方法，以确定哪些组织因素组合与排放结果的差异有关。与环境歧化和组织结构的研究一致，该项目测试了四个假设：1)温室气体排放和工作比在煤炭公用事业和炼油行业的设施中分布不均匀；2)具有极端温室气体排放水平和工作比的设施具有一定的组织特征组合；3)即使在控制了其他相关因素后，这些组织“剖面”对温室气体排放水平和工作比也有显著影响。④设施对不同类型的国家级气候变化政策法规的响应取决于其组织结构。这一创新项目是同类项目中第一个在设施或工厂层面研究温室气体排放结果原因的项目。分析依赖于迄今为止无法获得的关于监管变化的组织来源和监管政策在生产现场的影响的数据。拟议的项目还将开创一种新的可能性，即将温室气体排放数据与有关设施特征的其他信息联系起来进行二次研究。更广泛的影响本研究的发现可能会被未来的学者用来系统化他们的研究，并选择最具因果关系的案例进行比较案例研究。该项目的研究结果还可以为未来的州和联邦层面的环境政策和法规提供参考，包括温室气体排放和其他环境污染物。调查结果还可以帮助联邦官员决定哪些设施最有可能遵守哪些国家监管标准。此外，研究结果可能会引起工业的兴趣，因为未来的管理举措可能针对特定的工厂子集，而不是制定所有煤炭和石油工业的工厂都要遵守的条例。最后，项目成果可以支持行业倡议，以优化成员设施的自我监管和环境绩效。

SES - 1123262 Don S. Grant IIUniversity of ArizonaOrganizational Determinants of Compliance with Greenhouse Gas Emissions StandardsAbstractCoal utility and oil refinery industries are thought to be responsible for nearly 40 percent of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the U.S. While industry-level trends have been studied widely, we know little about the role of individual facilities or plants in GHG emission trends. This project addresses three research questions: Which coal-based power plants and oil refineries have the highest emission levels and emit the most GHGs per job? Which sets of organizational factors cause variation between GHG emissions at the plant level? How can we explain differences in responsiveness of plants to regulations at the state level?To answer these questions, this project will use a unique data set on individual facilities and their GHG discharges, to be released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The project will employ multivariate techniques as well a fuzzy set analytic methods that can determine which combinations of organizational factors are associated with differences in emission outcomes. Consistent with research on environmental disproportionalities and organizational configurations, the project tests four hypotheses: 1) GHG emissions and emissions-to-job ratios are unevenly distributed across facilities within the coal utility and oil refinery industries, 2) Those facilities with extreme GHG emission levels and emissions-to-jobs ratios share certain combinations of organizational characteristics, 3) These organizational "profiles" exert significant effects on GHG emission levels and emissions-to-jobs ratios even after controlling for other relevant factors, and 4) The response of facilities to different kinds of state-level climate change policies and regulations depends on their organizational profiles.This innovative project is the first of its kind and scope to study the causes of GHG emission outcomes at the facility or plant level. Analyses rely on heretofore unavailable data on the organizational sources of regulatory change and the effects of regulatory policies at the site of production. The proposed project will also pioneer a new possibility for secondary research connecting GHG emissions data with other information on the characteristics of facilities. Broader ImpactsFindings from this study may be used by future scholars to systematize their research and select the most causally relevant cases for comparative case studies. Findings from this project may also inform future environmental policies and regulations at state and federal levels, both with regard to GHG emissions as well as other environmental pollutants. Findings may also help federal officials decide which facilities are most likely to comply with which national regulatory standards. Moreover, findings may be of interest to industry, as it may become possible to target future regulatory initiatives at specific subsets of plants rather than devising regulations to which all plants in the coal and oil industries are subject. Finally, project results could support industry initiatives to optimize self-regulation and environmental performance of member facilities.