Texas A&M Bush School student Michael Migaud received the ExxonMobil Best Poster Presentation award at the Texas A&M Conference on Energy. His presentation was entitled “State Policies and Individual Action: How State Policy Influences Individual Uses and Opinions of Renewable Energy.”
A first-year Bush School student in the Master of Public Service and Administration program, Migaud said, “It was very rewarding to win the ExxonMobil Best Poster Presentation award. I put in a lot of work on this project, and to see all of my hard work come to fruition was really special and motivating. I am truly grateful for the opportunities the Institute for Science, Technology, and Public Policy has given me to explore my interests in energy policy.”
Mr. Migaud first worked with the Bush School Institute for Science, Technology, and Public Policy (ISTPP) in the summer of 2017, when he requested a position for the Summer Research Internship program sponsored the A&M Energy Institute. He was one of eight students selected out of sixty-three applicants for such an internship. During that summer and later as a student worker in ISTPP, Migaud completed the research that was presented in his award-winning poster.
Migaud’s research examines the relationship between states enacting pro-renewable energy policies and citizen attitudes/opinion towards renewable energy. The data utilized for this analysis came from three main sources: (1) a collection of renewable energy incentive policies enacted by state legislatures from 2006 to 2016, (2) responses from a nationally representative survey on energy issues administered in 2015, and (3) information on states’ energy profiles (i.e. primary energy source, primary generating capacity, etc.) that can be found on government websites. Results showed strong public support for increased federal funding for renewable energy technology use and research—particularly in states that have net metering policies. This study highlights the states’ potential role in promoting alternative energy use, with the possible inference that such policies may influence, and be influenced by, citizen attitudes and opinions about energy sources and consumption.
Mr. Migaud also presented this research with fellow researcher Dr. Bryce Hannibal at the 2018 Energy, Law, and Policy Workshop held on the Texas A&M campus. Dr. Hannibal is a researcher at ISTPP. Their talk was titled “State Energy Policies and Public Support for Renewable Energy.”
