The impact of climate policy uncertainty on renewable and non-renewable energy demand in the United States

Abstract

This paper evaluates the impact of climate policy uncertainty on renewable and non-renewable energy consumption in the United States over the quarterly data from 2000Q1 to 2021Q3. Economic growth and crude oil prices are added to the energy consumption functions as control variables. The paper considers several approaches to model both renewable and non-renewable energy demand. It is found that crude oil prices promote non-renewable energy demand and climate policy uncertainty reduces it. Surprisingly, the impact of economic growth on non-renewable energy consumption is positive but insignificant. It is also observed that economic growth promotes renewable energy demand, and crude oil prices reduce it. Furthermore, climate policy uncertainty positively affects renewable energy demand in the long run. Some policy implications are provided for reducing non-renewable energy consumption and promoting renewable energy use in the United States through climate policy implementation.