Environmental Polling Roundup – January 26, 2024
HEADLINES
Yale – New Yale Climate Opinion Maps provide updated estimates of Americans’ climate attitudes down to the state, county, metro area, and congressional district levels [Website]
WSP + The Harris Poll – Americans are widely concerned about aging and unreliable electric grid infrastructure; grid reliability, along with health and jobs, is a key argument in favor of transitioning to clean energy [Release, including link to download full report]
The Economist + YouGov – More Democrats name climate change and the environment as their “most important issue” than any other [Topline, Crosstabs]
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Climate and the environment continue to rank as Democrats’ “most important issue” this year. With the presidential contest officially underway, we are going to be seeing a lot of coverage (some rooted in actual data, some not) about the issues that “matter most” to voters this year and motivate them to turn out. At least on the Democratic side, climate change has consistently ranked among the very top issue concerns for several years. The Economist and YouGov find this week, for example, that Democrats are more likely to name climate change and the environment as their “most important issue” than any other issue.
- Clean energy advocates should own the goal of grid reliability. Polls consistently show that Americans overwhelmingly want to invest in improved grid reliability but are unsure whether the clean energy transition will increase or decrease reliability. This creates room for clean energy advocates to move the public on the topic and persuade them that clean energy investment will create a stronger, more resilient grid. In newly released polling by consulting firm WSP and The Harris Poll, improved grid reliability ranks among the most compelling rationales for the clean energy transition along with improved health and jobs.
GOOD DATA POINTS TO HIGHLIGHT
- [Clean Energy] 78% of Americans say that renewable electricity can help the U.S. economy in the long run [WSP + Harris Poll]
- [Clean Energy] 74% of Americans say that they understand the need to transition U.S. energy from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources [WSP + Harris Poll]
- [Electric Grid + Extreme Weather] 78% of Americans are concerned about the safety of the grid, including vulnerability to extreme weather events [WSP + Harris Poll]
- [Climate Change + Energy] 67% of Americans are concerned about the climate impact of using fossil fuels to generate electricity [WSP + Harris Poll]
FULL ROUNDUP
Yale – New Yale Climate Opinion Maps provide updated estimates of Americans’ climate attitudes and policy preferences down to the state, county, metro area, and congressional district levels [Website]
Yale’s Climate Opinion Maps have long been an invaluable tool for local climate advocacy.
While most polling on climate attitudes is conducted at either the national or state levels, Yale’s Climate Opinion Maps utilize national polling data to estimate public attitudes down to smaller geographies – providing advocates with a unique set of data to hold policymakers at various levels of government accountable.
In addition to people’s climate beliefs, the tool provides estimates on a range of questions relating to climate impacts (e.g., whether people believe that they will be personally impacted by climate change), policy support (e.g., whether people support funding research into renewable energy sources), and specific actors (e.g., whether Congress, corporations, or a state’s governor should do more to address global warming).
WSP + The Harris Poll – Americans are widely concerned about aging and unreliable electric grid infrastructure; grid reliability, along with health and jobs, is a key argument for promoting the clean energy transition [Release, including link to download full report]
In this newly released survey that was conducted by consulting and engineering firm WSP along with The Harris Poll last month, large majorities of Americans express concerns about the country’s aging electric grid.
Nearly as many Americans say that they’re concerned about the grid’s aging infrastructure and vulnerability to extreme weather as they are about the affordability of electricity, with most Americans saying that they are concerned about each of the following aspects of electricity in the U.S.:
- Affordability of electricity – 81%
- The grid’s aging infrastructure – 79%
- The safety of the grid, including vulnerability to extreme weather – 78%
- Dependable electricity without power outages – 75%
- The climate impact of using fossil fuels to generate electricity – 67%
Notably, Americans’ concerns about grid reliability are serious enough that the majority (61%) say that they would be willing to pay slightly more for electricity if it meant building a more reliable electric grid.
The survey additionally finds that improving grid reliability, along with more common messaging about improving health and creating jobs, ranks as a top rationale for transitioning to clean energy. Pulling from WSP’s report:
“Those on the front lines of spearheading the transition to renewable power may wonder about which messages to prioritize when communicating the potential benefits. Common wisdom is to lead with economic messages.
While that is an important consideration and may resonate even more strongly in some geographies and with some demographic groups more than others…our survey suggests there may be solid receptivity to broader messages.
Specifically, we found that, when asked what would influence their support for the transition to renewable energy,
- Health and economic benefits garner similar levels of interest, with 89% of Americans saying energy transition projects that promote local economic growth and 87% saying projects that promote public health by reducing air pollution would influence their support for renewable energy projects.
- Long-term local jobs and resilience are both important. Americans are equally influenced by the creation of long-term local jobs and improved resilience of the local electric grid (90% each).”
While it may seem surprising to see grid reliability messaging rank on par with health and economic messaging, investments in the electricity grid have long ranked among the most popular aspects of President Biden’s infrastructure and clean energy plans.
Owning the goal of grid reliability is also critically important to winning the debate on clean energy, as grid reliability is one of the public’s greatest lingering concerns about the clean energy transition. Pew found last year, for example, that Americans view the clean energy transition as a net positive for jobs and for air and water quality but a slight net negative for grid reliability and consumer costs.
The Economist + YouGov – More Democrats name climate change and the environment as their “most important issue” than any other [Topline, Crosstabs]
The Economist and YouGov track Americans’ policy priorities on a weekly basis in their national surveys, and climate/environment has consistently ranked behind only inflation/prices, the economy, and health care over the past couple of years as Americans’ “most important issue.”
In the most recent wave of the survey, climate/environment trails only those issues and immigration when Americans are asked to identify the single issue that is most important to them:
- Inflation/prices – 20%
- Immigration – 12%
- Jobs and the economy – 11%
- Health care – 11%
- Climate change and the environment – 8%
- National security – 6%
- (All other responses – 5% or lower)
Among Democrats, meanwhile, the Economist and YouGov data consistently shows that no issue is more important than climate and the environment. In the most recent survey, 17% of Democrats name climate change and the environment as their top issue. Inflation/prices (14%), health care (10%), and jobs and the economy (10%) are the only other issues named by 10% of Democrats or more.
As this data shows, there is no single dominant issue right now either for Americans overall or for Democrats in particular. It is clear, however, that climate change remains at the very top of Democrats’ lists of priorities for 2024 as the presidential content officially gets underway.
Related Resources
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