The Political Ecology of Renewable Energy Development: A

Comparative Study of California and Morocco

By
Ashley A. Vandehey

A Thesis

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Bachelor of Arts in International Relations, Environmental Studies
and Honors Program
Franklin University Switzerland

Lugano, Switzerland
May 2015

Thesis Acceptance Page

On behalf of the Thesis Committee, I approve this thesis as meeting

the academic expectations of the University.

Armando Zanecchia, Ph.D., Chair of Committee

Brack Hale, Ph.D., Reader

Morris Mottale, Ph.D., Reader

Abstract
This thesis seeks to examine the development of renewable
energy through the comparative case studies of California and
Morocco. These states differ politically, socially, historically, and
economically yet they have both embraced renewable energy as a
response to the duality of energy independence and climate mitigation.
This thesis will contribute to a comparative analysis of the growth of
renewable development between two geographically similar polities.
This thesis will investigate the different approaches these peoples and
governments have taken to fulfill energy demand, how they are similar
and how they contrast, both as societies and within government policy.
Both polities maintain major influence in their respective regions.
Morocco and California provide a comparison of how places with similar
physical geographies have given rise to different social and cultural
characteristics with equally progressive energy policies.

Table of Contents
THESIS ACCEPTANCE PAGE................................................................................... I
ABSTRACT........................................................................................................ II
ABBREVIATIONS................................................................................................ IV
NOTABLE PERSONS............................................................................................ V
CHAPTER ONE: SETTING THE STAGE................................................6
1.1 INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................... 6
1.2 THESIS STATEMENT...................................................................................... 7
1.2 DEFINING THE PROBLEMS............................................................................ 8
1.3 THE ACTORS........................................................................................... 11
1.5 ENERGY DEVELOPMENT AND CLIMATE GOVERNANCE..........................................13
1.6 SETTING THE STAGE................................................................................... 14

Abbreviations
ACWA: International Company for Water and Power Projects (Saudi)
AR: Assessment Report (IPCC)
CAA: United States Clean Air Act
CDM: Clean Development Mechanism
CDT: Democratic Confederation of Workers
CIF: Climate Investment Fund
CO2: carbon dioxide
CSP: Concentrated Solar Power
CTF: Clean Technology Fund
CWA: United States Clean Water Act
EPA: United States Environmental Protection Agency
EPC: Engineering, Procurement, and Construction
EU: European Union
FDI: Foreign Direct Investment
GDP: Gross Domestic Product
GHG: greenhouse gas
GIZ: Deutsche Gesellschaft fr Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH
GW: gigawatt
IEA: International Energy Agency
IPCC: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
LNG: liquid natural gas
MASEN: Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy
MENA: Middle East North Africa
MDG: Millennium Development Goal
MSP: Moroccan Solar Project
MW: megawatt
OECD: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
ONEE: Office National de l'Electricit et de l'Eau Potable
PERG: Rural Electrification Programme Global
PJD: Islamic Party of Justice
PPA: Power Purchase Agreement
PV: photovoltaic
SAP: structural adjustment program
TER: Rural Electrification Rate
TSK: Spanish Corporation EPC contractor
UAE: United Arab Emirates
UMA: Arab Maghreb Union
UN: United Nations
USFP: Socialist Union of Popular France

Notable Persons
Bassima el-Haqqawi: Moroccan politician of the Justice and
Development Party
Driss Basri: served as Interior Minister from 1979 to 1999
Hassan II: King of Morocco from 1961 until his death in 1999
Jimmy Carter: 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981
John F. Kennedy: 35th President of the United States from January 1961
until his assassination in November 1963
John Muir: Scottish-American naturalist, author, and early advocate of
preservation of wilderness in the United States
Mohammad VI: current King of Morocco
Rachel Carson: American marine biologist and conservationist
Richard Nixon: 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969
to 1974
Samuel L Kaplan: United States Ambassador to Morocco 2009-2013
Taieb Fassi Firhi: Moroccan politician who was Minister of Foreign Affairs
of Morocco from 2007 to 2012

Chapter One: Setting the stage

1.1

Introduction
The need for sustainable energy and climate mitigation has

never been more critical. Global demand for energy is increasing.

Annual Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions accelerated from 1.7% per
year from 1990-2000 to 3.1% per year from 2000-2010.1 The primary
contributor to this trend is a sharp increase in demand associated with
rapid economic growth. Billions of people in developing countries are
striving to achieve higher living standards, and developed nations are
working to maintain their increasing energy demand. Increases in
population and energy demand highlight the urgent need for
sustainable, affordable, and environmentally sound energy systems.2
However there lacks a consensus amongst policy makers on the
direction energy policy should shift. There are those that argue that
fossil fuel is essential to maintaining economic growth, but this
conflicts with climate change mitigation. The Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC) has appealed to the global community to

1 T. Bruckner et al., Energy Systems, in Climate Change 2014:

Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the
Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, ed. Ottmar Edenhofer et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2014), 6.
2 Gill Wilkins, Technology Transfer for Renewable Energy: Overcoming
Barriers in Developing Countries (London: Earthscan Publications Ltd.,
2002), 10.

halve CO2 emissions by 2050.3 Renewable energy can influence energy

security by mitigating concerns with respect to both availability and
distribution of resources. Solar energy, particularly that harnessed
through centralized Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), is an infinite and
efficient source of power that can replace fossil fuels. Regardless
whether or not we are approaching peak oil, there is an immediate
need to divest in fossil fuels and deploy renewables.4 Renewable
energy deployment reduces overall risk through energy portfolio
diversity, all the while being less susceptible to (sudden) energy supply
disruption.5

1.2 Thesis Statement

This thesis seeks to analyze the difference between the rise of
renewable energy policies in California and Morocco through the lens of
environmental discourse with respect to energy and climate security. I
argue that despite vastly different political, historical, and cultural
geographies, these two states have embraced renewable energy as a
response to the duality of energy security and climate mitigation. This
thesis will contribute to a comparative analysis of the progression of

3 Bruckner et al., Energy Systems.

4 For a review of peak oil, refer to: Steve Sorrell et al., Shaping the
Global Oil Peak: A Review of the Evidence on Field Sizes, Reserve
Growth, Decline Rates and Depletion Rates, Energy, 2011, 16,
doi:10.1016/j.energy.2011.10.010.
5 Ottmar Edenhofer et al., Renewable Energy Sources and Climate
Change Mitigation (New York, 2012), 127.

renewable development between two geographically similar polities.

Using a schematic approach, I investigate the different approaches
these peoples and governments have taken to fulfill energy demand,
how they are similar and how they contrast, both as societies and
within government policy. Both polities maintain major influence in
their respective regions: Morocco as the key to Africa and California
as the vanguard of the environmental movement. These states
represent opposite sides of economic and political ideological
spectrums, yet were both capable of implementing ecologically
cognizant energy policies. Their respective development pathways can
provide models for other states, whether developed or developing, to
replicate for the sake of a sustainable future.

1.2

Defining the Problems

At the most basic level, the problems of climate change and

energy security are about negative externalities. California and

Morocco have geographical and climatic similarities in addition to their
equally advanced energy policies. Surprisingly little has been written
specifically comparing the two states in all their complexity. In order to
pursue such an analysis, it is important to understand the framework
of existing literature addressing related and contextual issues that
affect historical socio-political trends, the development and

employment of renewable energy technology, and policy strategy as

applied to energy and climate security.

The state
The degree to which California is a state in comparison to
Morocco is unconventional. The notion of a state carries with it various
characteristics and responsibilities. While it is uncommon to compare
the governments of California and Morocco as states, in the context of
this paper state is used to facilitate simplicity. The Weberian
conceptualization of the state has three important characteristics: it
controls a particular territory, is comprised of a population of citizens,
and posses the ability to make and enforce its own laws.6 The state is
comprised of various administrative levels including regional, city, and
local government. In our contemporary globalized era, the state
operates within the context of multilayered governance that stretches
from international down to regions, cities, and localities. To emphasize
the importance of the state to climate change and energy policy
means to recognize the importance of working with other countries and
international organizations. Climate change poses an immediate risk to
the state because it threatens the well-being of territory, the people,
and legitimacy because it cannot assure security and stability.

6 Max Weber, Politics as a Vocation, in From Max Weber: Essays in

Sociology, ed. H.H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1946), 77128.

Likewise, the availability of energy resources is pertinent to the

security of a state. It is necessary that a state develops renewable
energy and be secure.
In order to conduct an effective comparison of the development of
renewable energy (more specifically CSP) between California and
Morocco, there must be conceptual and chronological framework that
allows for a coherent analysis of methods and practices that are
applicable across historical contexts and political, cultural, and physical
geographies. Anthony Giddens was one of the first to write extensively
about the politics, or rather the lack thereof, of climate change. He
argues that there is no current political framework through which
governments on all levels can work. In developing his conceptual
framework for climate change politics, he introduces the notion of the
ensuring state. There are two necessary features that characterize an
ensuring state. Firstly, it is under the responsibility of the state to act
as an enabler to stimulate and support social groups in order to drive
policy; and secondly, the ensuring state must also ensure that
outcomes are achieved.7 In regards to energy security this means
guaranteeing that the citizens under their jurisdiction are free from
jeopardy. For climate security this means a reduction in greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions.

7 Anthony Giddens, The Politics of Climate Change (Cambridge: Polity

Press, 2009), 8.

Climate Change
Climate change is undeniable. The process itself refers to a
transformation in the state of the climate that can be identified by
changes in the average or variability of its characteristics that persist
for typically decades or longer. Climate change may occur through
natural processes or external events such as: modulations of the solar
cycles, volcanic eruptions, and persistent anthropogenic changes in
the composition of the atmosphere or in land use. 8 There is little
doubt that humans are the greatest contribution, particularly through
the burning of fossil fuels. The IPCC in their AR4 report asserted with
very high confidence that the global average effect of human
activities since 1750 has been one of warming.9 Most if not all energy
options and technologies have environmental and social impacts to
one degree or another (e.g. air, water, land pollution, resource
constraints, social impacts, etc.)10 However, the risks associated with
fossil fuel sources are more acute and have serious long-term social
and environmental risks.11

8 Bruckner et al., Energy Systems, 6.

9 Contribution of Working Groups I II and III to the Fourth Assessment
Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Causes of
Change, Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report (Geneva:
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2008), 37.
10 Stephen Peake, Bob Everett, and Godfrey Boyle, Introducing
Energy Systems and Sustainability, in Energy Systems and
Sustainability: Power for a Sustainable Future, ed. Bob Everett et al.,
2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 24.
11 Amory B. Lovins, World Energy Strategies: Facts, Issues, and
Options (New York: Friends of the Earth, Inc., 1975), 113.

Energy Security
The problem of energy security is harder to define and often
misunderstood. Energy independence has been a goal of policymakers
that transcends ideological boundaries since the first energy crisis in
1970.12 The classic conception of energy security addresses the
relative availability and affordability of energy fuels and services and
resilience against (sudden) disruptions of energy supply. 13 As Daniel
Yergin so eloquently put it, there is only one oil market where
disruption in one part of the world will reverberate worldwide.14
Energy security for all states resides in the stability of this global
market where, secession is not an option. Dependence on foreign oil
markets exposes the economy to price volatility and access, and while
California may cope more easily given its developed status, states like
Morocco cannot afford the exposure to state security.
1.3

The actors

The state is an all-important actor, since so many powers remain in its

hands, whether domestic or international policy scales.15 There is no

12 Jason Bordoff, Manasi Deshpande, and Pascal Noel, Understanding

the Interaction between Energy Security and Climate Change Policy,
in Energy Security: Economics, Politics, Strategies, and Implications,
ed. Carlos Pascual and Jonathan Elkind (Washington, D.C.: Brookings
Institution Press, 2010), 212.
13 Marilyn A. Brown and Benjamin K. Sovacool, Climate Change and
Global Energy Security: Technology and Policy Options (Cambridge,
MA: The MIT Press, 2011), 5; Edenhofer et al., Renewable Energy
Sources and Climate Change Mitigation, 120.
14 Daniel Yergin, The Quest (New York: Penguin, 2012), 277.
15 Giddens, The Politics of Climate Change, 5.

way of forcing states to agree to international agreements, let alone

implement whatever is agreed upon. But in seeing the examples to
renewable implementation led by California and Morocco, it gives other
states pathways to follow which makes the process of transition away
from fossil fuels easier. Technological advance and trade is vital to
cutting GHG emissions and accessing local energy sources that can
help facilitate sustainable development, but state support is necessary
to set it in motion.
In this comparison the market also has an important role to play.
Emissions trading are not the only arena in which markets can mitigate
climate change. To be put plainly, where a price can be put on an
environmental good (such as solar energy) without affronting other
values, it should be done, since competition will then create increased
efficiency whenever that good is exchanged.16 What this means for
renewable energy is that the efficiency of a solar PV or CSP plant
encourages other solar production to increase efficiency to be able to
compete on the energy market. Innovations in the methods to produce
renewable energy are developed to combat climate change, but also
generate competitive advantage to those who deploy them. Morocco
and California both have an incredible solar development advantage
given their geography and climate. The most important area of political

16 John S. Dryzek, Leave It to the Market: Economic Rationalism, in

The Politics of the Earth: Environmental Discourses, 3rd ed. (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2013), 124.

and economic convergence is the overlap between climate change and

energy security. Economic prosperity is the key to solving the twin
problems of maintaining energy supply and combatting climate
change.17 Here again is the importance of the role of the state in
regulating the production and consumption of energy.
Countering climate change and forging energy independence costs
money. Countries that have been at the forefront of climate change
policy are typically more developed with substantial GDPs and state
subsidizing. Lesser-developed states, however, must seek finance from
elsewhere and this creates a problem of who is financing projects and
for what purpose. Such is the case with Saudi Arabian and European
Union investments towards Moroccan solar development.
Technology innovation and transfer plays an important role.
Investment in renewable energy technology is crucial in countering
climate change and facilitating sustainable development. Those
resources cannot develop alone, nor can market forces alone stimulate
them. The state must act in either subsidizing them or facilitating an
attractive market for foreign investment. Either way, it is the states
responsibility to assure renewable energies can compete against fossil
fuels and to protect investment in the face of the fluctuations to which

17 Peake, Everett, and Boyle, Introducing Energy Systems and

Sustainability, 27.

the prices of oil and natural gas are subject.18 The state must act as
the facilitator and must ensure that outcomes are achieved.

1.5 Energy development and climate governance

Energy needs of the industrialized countries in the Organization
for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in addition to the
rapid economic growth of developing states, is putting further strain on
available energy sources as well as increasing GHG levels. The
underlying causes are to some degree the same. The energy needs of
the industrial countries have created most of the emissions that are
causing global warming.19 Countries at different levels of development
have different incentives to advance renewable energy.20 For
developing countries like Morocco, the most common reason is to
provide access to energy and reducing the costs of energy imports. For
industrialized states such as California, the primary reason is to reduce
GHG emissions to mitigate climate change.
Both California and Morocco have access and the potential to use
hydroelectric, solar, wind, wave, and geothermal energy. With the
increasing droughts in California and a history of droughts in Morocco,
hydroelectric is becoming a less viable because climate change and

18 Giddens, The Politics of Climate Change, 8.

19 Ibid., 10.
20 Edenhofer et al., Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change
Mitigation, 120.

water shortages are making it less sustainable. In the context and

length of this paper I only analyze the development of CSP for the
purpose of generating electricity, as it is the focal point for both
California and Moroccos renewable energy policies. (Because specific
solar policies are the subject of other analyses in this thesis, they will
not be addressed in detail here.)

1.6 Setting the stage

Against a backdrop of concern over climate change mitigation
and adaptation, energy security, the development and deployment of
renewable energy resources is of interest to many organizations across
the globe. Renewable energy has a key role to play not only in
addressing emissions targets nationally and globally, but also in
accessing local energy sources that help facilitate sustainable
development and meet international targets for development and
climate mitigation.21 When implemented properly, renewable energy
contributes to wider benefits, most importantly for the sake of my
discussion a secure energy supply and reduction of negative impacts
on the environment and health.22 Renewable energy is an integral part
of Moroccos national strategy for sustainable development. While

21 Wilkins, Technology Transfer for Renewable Energy: Overcoming

Barriers in Developing Countries; Edenhofer et al., Renewable Energy
Sources and Climate Change Mitigation.
22 Bruckner et al., Energy Systems.

renewable energy systems are used to produce electricity, they may

also be used to provide heat and mechanical power that offer a full
range of services for communities and businesses.23 Harnessing local
energy capacities is a key element for the social and economic
development of any developing state.
Another factor to consider that is discussed by Anthony Giddens in his
book The Politics of Climate Change, is the development imperative.
The development imperative explains that lesser-developed countries
that have contributed only marginally to global warming, should have
the chance to develop, even if such a process raises emissions.24 The
enormous tensions from global inequalities will only worsen with the
stressors of climate change. Through technology transfer and FDI, it
should be possible for developing countries to follow a development
pathway that is less carbon-intensive. Essentially, the promise of
following the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a bargain
between the more and less developed parts of the world. Morocco has
attained massive FDI in exchange for clean energy development
through deals struck with the EU, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Economic
instruments were endorsed by the 1987 Brundtland Report, Our
Common Future, which launched the era of sustainable development
on the international stage.25
23 Wilkins, Technology Transfer for Renewable Energy: Overcoming
Barriers in Developing Countries, 1.
24 Giddens, The Politics of Climate Change, 9.
25 Dryzek, Leave It to the Market: Economic Rationalism, 124.

Then there is the issue of coping with risk and uncertainty. There is no
longer an issue that is individually energy or climate related. We have
approached a time where our problems are more interlinked than ever.
Climate change politics is an inherently wicked problem that is all
about risk and how to manage it. Wicked problems refer to a class of
social system problems which are ill-formulated, where information is
confusing, where there are many actors with conflicting values, and
where the ramifications in the whole system are thoroughly
confusing.26 What makes these problems more difficult is the plurality
of society and the differentiation of values that creates a cleavage of
differentiation of publics.27 The social context surrounding a wicked
problem is of great importance in understanding and potentially
solving the problem because it determines the actors who have
investment, for what reasons, and what their goals are.
The literature on risk regulation often assumes a direct link between
public pressure and regulatory responses. The direction of regulatory
energy response in the United States is related to public argumentation
as expressed in the national media. The Pavlovian fashion of American
politics is such that when there is a shortage in fossil fuels, the national
government reacts to protect its supplies both domestically and
internationally. This response is represented in national policy patterns
26 CW Churchman, Wicked Problems, Managment Science 14, no. 4
(1967): B14142, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2628678.
27 HWJ Rittel and MM Webber, Dilemmas in General Theory of
Planning, Policy Sciences 4 (1973): 15569.

and positions in universal policy paradigms. The creation of such a

response began with the energy crises in the 1970s, particularly under
the Carter administration wherein the President referred to the crisis as
the moral equivalent of war.28 California on the other hand developed
its own policy response pattern that follows what Karl Popper referred
to as the problem-solving community. Poppers model is founded in
rational attitudes that apply policy making as an experiment to remedy
ailments in society, and requires elements of societal interaction
underneath an umbrella of democratic pragmatism.29
This is not a classical comparative study, but there is value in
analyzing these two governments. A comparison between California
and Morocco has seldom been made despite their long political history,
as Morocco was the first country to recognize an independent United
States. Their approaches to vital issues that expand beyond the
present moment provide examples for how other governments may
confront similar threats in the context of energy security and climate
mitigation. To get a better understanding as to how these two states
are alike, we now look to climate and energy risks.

28 Daniel Horowitz, Jimy Carter and the Energy Crisis of the 1970s: The
Crisis of Confidence Speech of July 15, 1979. (Boston:
Bedford/St.Martins, 2005), 186.
29 John Dryzek, Leave It to the People: Democratic Pragmatism, in
The Politics of the Earth: Environmental Discourses, 3rd ed. (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2013), 111.