TODAY’S STUDY: VOTERS WANT NEW ENERGY

Energy and the 2012 Election: No Voter Constituency Found for Washington’s Focus on Fossil Fuels & Nuclear Power
November 3, 2011 (ORC International/Civil Society Institute)

Executive Summary

Promotion of oil, coal and natural gas as energy sources. Loan guarantees and other subsidies for nuclear power and fossil fuels. Slashing federal support for wind and solar power. Attacking clean energy as bad for the economy. Climate science denial. Touting a “clean energy standard” that includes coal and nuclear. -- Are those in Congress and the White House who are (to varying degrees) embracing the agendas of coal, oil, gas, and nuclear industries in sync … or out of touch … with the mainstream of America?

…A new survey of 1,049 Americans conducted October 21-24, 2011 by ORC International for the nonprofit and nonpartisan Civil Society Institute (CSI) finds that most Americans – including an often large share of Tea Party supporters – are not on the same page as many in Congress and at the White House when it comes to energy issues:

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•Few Americans want Washington to adopt a laissez faire approach to energy issues. Only about one in four Americans (27 percent) – including 47 percent of Republicans, 27 percent of Independents, 11 percent of Democrats and a surprisingly small 57 percent of Tea Party supporters -- say “Congress and the President should stay out of the energy markets and let private enterprise have a free hand in picking energy sources and setting prices.”

•If Washington had to choose between fossil fuel/nuclear subsidies and wind/solar subsidies, “clean energy” aid would get support from three times more Americans than fossil fuel/nuclear energy subsidies. Just over one in 10 American adults (13 percent) – including 20 percent of Republicans, 9 percent of Independents, 10 percent of Democrats, and only 24 percent of Tea Party supporters – are in favor of concentrating federal energy subsidies on the coal, nuclear power and natural gas industries. When it comes to focusing federal subsidies on wind and solar, 38 percent of all Americans are supportive -– about three times the support level for fossil fuel/nuclear subsidies. Only about one in 10 Americans (13 percent) – including just 26 percent of Tea Party supporters -- believes that “no energy source should receive federal subsidies.”

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•Fossil fuel subsidies are opposed by Americans on a bipartisan basis. Six in 10 Americans – including 59 percent of Republicans, 65 percent of Independents, 59 percent of Democrats, and 59 percent of Tea Party members -- oppose “federal subsidies for oil and gas, coal, natural gas and other fossil fuel companies.”

•Nuclear reactor loan guarantees are opposed by Americans on a bipartisan basis. More than two out of three Americans (67 percent) – including 65 percent of Republicans, 66 percent of Independents, 68 percent of Democrats and 62 percent of Tea Party backers – disagree that “taxpayers and ratepayers should provide taxpayer backed loan guarantees for the construction of new nuclear power reactors in the United States through proposed tens of billions in federal loan guarantees for new reactors.”

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•Bad news for a “clean energy standard” reliant on nuclear power: Most Americans want the U.S. to shift federal loan guarantee support from nuclear power to wind and solar energy. About seven in 10 Americans (71 percent) – including 55 percent of Republicans, 72 percent of Independents, 84 percent of Democrats, and almost half (47 percent) of Tea Party backers -- strongly or somewhat support “a shift of federal loan-guarantee support for energy away from nuclear reactors and towards clean renewable energy such as wind and solar.”

•Americans do not see more clean energy as a roadblock to economic recovery. More than two thirds of Americans (69 percent) – including 59 percent of Republicans, 73 percent of Independents, 78 percent of Democrats and a plurality of Tea Party supporters (48 percent) – think it would be a “bad idea” for the U.S. “ to ‘put on hold’ progress towards cleaner energy sources during the current economic difficulty.”

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•Excessive corporate influence may explain the gap between where some in Washington are on energy policy … and where mainstream America is. More than seven in 10 Americans (72 percent) – including 62 percent of Republicans, 74 percent of Independents, 83 percent of Democrats, and over half of Tea Party supporters (54 percent) -- think that “America’s oil, coal and natural gas companies have a disproportionate influence on Congress and the White House when it comes to making national energy policy.”

•A strong majority of Americans want the U.S. to make the investments needed to be a clean energy leader on a global basis. More than three in four Americans (77 percent) – including 65 percent of Republicans, 75 percent of Independents, 88 percent of Democrats, and 56 percent of Tea Party members -- agree with the following statement: “The U.S. needs to be a clean energy technology leader and it should invest in the research and domestic manufacturing of wind, solar and energy efficiency technologies.”

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•Most Americans want continued movement away from fossil fuels. About three in four Americans (76 percent) – including 62 percent of Republicans, 76 percent of Independents, 90 percent of Democrats and half of Tea Party supporters – agree strongly or somewhat with the following statement: “Smarter energy choices are the key to creating a future that is healthy and safe because fossil fuels create toxic wastes that are a threat to our health and safety.”

•Most Americans would favor a moratorium on coal-fired power plants. Nearly two thirds of Americans (65 percent) – including 55 percent of Republicans, 68 percent of Independents, 72 percent of Democrats, and about half (49 percent) of Tea Party backers -- would support a phase-out of coal fired power plants in the United States” if “increased energy efficiency and off the shelf renewable technologies such as wind and solar could meet our energy demands.”

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•Concerns about water are present in America on a strongly bipartisan basis. More than three in four Americans (78 percent) – including 68 percent of Republicans, 80 percent of Independents, 85 percent of Democrats and 61 percent of Tea Party backers -- agree with the following statement: “Water shortages and clean drinking water are real concerns. America should put the emphasis on first developing new energy sources that require the least water and cause minimal water pollution.”

•Few Americans dismiss a connection between extreme weather events and climate change. Fewer than one in five Americans (17 percent) think that “climate change is not a factor” in “at least 10 weather related disasters caused by so called extreme weather – (that) have occurred so far in 2011 involving $1 billion or more each in damages – now totaling about $45 billion.” Fewer than half (45 percent) of Tea Party members fall into the climate change denial camp on this question.

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Other key survey findings include the following:

• Nearly three in five (58 percent) of Americans are now aware of “the natural gas drilling process sometimes referred to as ‘fracking.’”

• About four in five Americans (79 percent) – including 66 percent of Republicans, 78 percent of Independents, 91 percent of Democrats, and 55 percent of Tea Party supporters -- say they are very or somewhat concerned “about this issue (fracking) as it relates to water quality.”

• Roughly three out of four Americans (74 percent) – including 68 percent of Republicans, 72 percent of Independents, 81 percent of Democrats, and 58 percent of Tea Party backers – agree with the following statement: “The cost of electricity paid by consumers is only part of the price of energy. We have to look at the whole picture -- including water quality, environmental damages and human health problems -- when we talk about what a particular source of energy costs America.”