The Dual Importance of Political Identity in Environmental Governance: The Case of Oil and Gas Policy in Colorado

摘要

Over the past decade, the U.S. has had significant growth in oil and gas production due in large part to hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"); and yet, we know little about public preferences for oil and gas regulations. Political identity is a strong predictor of policy support in other arenas. The purpose of this analysis is to clarify the role of political identity in support for oil and gas policy. We hypothesized that political identity has a direct impact on policy support and an indirect impact via risk/benefit perceptions and trust in the oil and gas industry. Using the KHB mediation technique, we show that about half of the impact of political identity is indirect via these mediating variables. We suggest that political identity is a uniquely important factor in environmental governance because it impacts both policy preferences and other variables that, in turn, also explain policy preferences. Political identity appears to be salient, even for local governance controversies.