Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Despite widespread interest in collaborative governance, we know little about its performance in shaping environmental outcomes, and the few existing studies that examine the performance of collaborative environmental governance focus on watershed governance (e.g., Scott 2015). Collaborative governance, however, has become increasingly common in the electricity sector, particularly for energy efficiency (EE) policy. The 2000s emerged as a period in which many states adopted ambitious policies to promote EE (Carley 2011), and over 30 U.S. states have adopted collaborative processes to aid in administrative policy making, inform utilities’ approaches to EE planning, or oversee program implementation (Baldwin et al. forthcoming). Despite this widespread collaborative activity, we know little about whether and how collaborative approaches contribute to states’ achievement of EE savings. This paper asks whether collaborative approaches to EE governance improve policy outcomes; and probes the causal pathways by which collaboration shapes outcomes.

This study uses a mixed methods approach, analyzing qualitative data to generate hypotheses and then using panel data models to test these hypotheses. Analysis of archived regulatory documents from four states (CT, MD, WI, and MN) and follow-up interviews with stakeholders in two states (CT and MN) reveals significant diversity across states in the structure and function of collaborative governance. In some states, for example, collaborative processes are designed primarily to provide decision makers with high-quality, objective analysis, while in others the collaboration is given decision making authority over policy decisions. Similarly, in some states the collaborative process is used primarily to inform administrative policy making by setting rules, guidelines, and policy goals, while in others the collaborative takes an active role in assisting and overseeing policy implementation. This variation across states is used to inform the development of testable hypotheses about the relationship between different approaches to collaboration and policy outcomes.

These hypotheses are tested through panel data analysis that uses the authors’ own original database of stakeholder participation in energy efficiency regulatory proceedings, covering all 50 states from 2000 – 2015. The database uses archived regulatory documents to create binary variables that represent whether a state used a particular approach to collaborative governance in EE policy in a given year. The paper tests the effects of each approach on EE savings at the utility level, using a multi-level model with fixed effects at the utility level, holding constant state EE policies and using state-specific time trends to address potential endogeneity. Preliminary results suggest that some, but not all, collaborative approaches have a positive and significant effect on energy savings.

In its conclusions and implications, this paper connects to the APPAM conference theme of “better data for better decisions.” One of the key findings of the paper is that stakeholders – particularly expert stakeholders – provide information and analysis that is crucial for establishing and evaluating EE savings goals. This paper highlights approaches to governance that are effective at incorporating this kind of expert information into the policy process via stakeholder collaboratives.