Issue: Natural Gas

Virginia voters favor solar and wind energy and feel modestly toward nuclear and natural gas. In this July 2021 survey found that 55% of Virginians think that more emphasis should be placed on solar energy. 45% feel the same about wind energy, 38% about natural gas, 37% about nuclear, and 23% about coal. 61% of Virginians agree with an “all the above” energy strategy that prioritizes clean energy. 60% support requiring Virginia utilities to participate in a regional transmission system aimed at “prompting reliability and price-control measures for consumers.” 62% support the major Virginia clean energy law (the “Virginia Clean Energy Economy Act”). Mostly, liberal and Democratic voters significantly support all these things, and conservative and Republican voters are somewhat split on these measures.

Climate Nexus’s national poll this month focuses on infrastructure but also touches on several other key debates over climate and clean energy.
The poll is also interesting in that it is one of the few public polls that puts clean energy front and center in its description of the American Jobs Plan, and even connects the bill to a 100% clean economy goal. Consistent with other polling that has found that climate and clean energy components enhance support for the American Jobs Plan, Climate Nexus finds that voters have overwhelmingly positive reactions to big investment in clean energy infrastructure.
Voters support the idea of “multi-trillion-dollar economic stimulus legislation that prioritizes investments in clean energy infrastructure and technologies” by a 62%-29% margin, and continue to support it by a 56%-44% margin after learning that it would likely need to pass with no Republican votes.
The reason that the proposal enjoys majority support, even when presented as partisan legislation, is that Democratic voters care more about passing clean energy legislation than Republican voters care about stopping it: Democrats support passing a clean energy bill on a hypothetical party-line vote by a 91%-9% margin, while Republican voters oppose it by an 81%-19% margin.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls – including polling on infrastructure and climate policy and oil and gas company accountability.

Since 2008, the National Surveys on Energy and the Environment (NSEE) have been exploring views of global warming among American adults. In the 24th wave of the survey, NSEE reached five key findings:

American acceptance of global warming is at a record high, with 75% of adults believing there is solid evidence that temperatures have increased over the last four decades;
Americans are more confident in their view that the planet is warming, with 51% indicating they are very confident global warming is happening;
Nearly 6 in 10 adults indicated that there is strong evidence of global warming and that humans are partially responsible;  
Almost half – 47% – of Americans attributed 2020’s record warmth to human induced global warming;
Action on climate change is more varied among respondents: mitigation efforts are the most commonly identified climate policies (39%), and nearly equal portions of respondents prioritized adaptation (16%) and geoengineering (17%).