In their book Nudge, Richard Thayler and Cass Sunstien develop a promising foundation for better governance called libertarian paternalism. The concept is based on the notion that public policy can be formulated by government that can help construct an architecture of choice that will cost effectively organize and deploy resources to improve our quality of life without government coercion and constraint. Their behavioral model is particularly applicable in the domain of energy and environmental policy. In other words, in the pursuit of energy independence and environmental protection good choice architecture may help.
Citing instances where good choice architecture has created environmentally beneficial behavior, the authors detail the spectacular successes of the emissions trading system (“cap and trade” program) and the Toxic Release Inventory in which firms must report to the EPA the quantities of hazardous chemicals released into the environment.
Individuals and firms are being offered billions of dollars in grants and tax subsidies to investigate renewable energy sources and develop energy efficient technologies; such as the $62 million of federal stimulus money to build a solar research institute at UT. Thayler and Sunstein’s research suggests that now is the time to “nudge” environmentally responsible behavior to move us in a direction of energy independence, rather than investing billions of dollars in high cost nuclear facilities and giving more tax incentives to increase oil and gas production on public lands.