Location: Georgia

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls – including on prioritizing clean energy sources over fossil fuels, voters supporting investments in clean energy and energy efficiency, and clean energy in key states.

There continues to be clear opportunity to boost support for clean energy in key states, with battleground voters shifting in favor of the Biden administration’s clean energy plan in response to positive messaging. In Arizona, support for Biden and Democrats’ clean energy plan increase 21 percentage points (from 39 to 60%) after reading about it. Similarly, support in Georgia increased 17 percentage points and support in Wisconsin increased 25 points. However, voters in these states are worried that clean energy policies might cost them more money in the short term.

Voters in rural-heavy counties in Georgia and Ohio tilt toward supporting wind and solar farms, but attitudes are quite malleable. Inoculation against character concerns is hard, so it may be better to focus proactive messaging on the benefits of wind and solar farms. A plurality of voters start out supporting wind and solar farms in their community but fewer than half of voters have intense attitudes either way and one-quarter are completely neutral. While voters intuitively get the pollution reduction benefits of these farms, they are more skeptical of the benefits to themselves and farmers – and they are concerned about their ROI. Encouragingly, our messaging is effective at increasing the belief that wind and solar farms will provide benefits to farmers and families – and that they create enough energy to be worth it. However, efforts to inoculate people against concerns about the impact on community character in this research were unsuccessful. Opposition attacks have a real impact, but simple pushback that ties this disinformation to Big Oil and Coal CEOs is quite successful in defusing these attacks. Positive messaging is effective at building support, especially with Democrats, less conservative Republicans, and women.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls – including new polling on voters’ reactions to arguments from the two parties on climate change; the impact of climate change and the environment on battleground voters’ decisions in the upcoming midterms; an experiment in communicating about human-caused climate change using a “heat-trapping blanket” metaphor; Americans’ personal experiences with climate change; and the widening generational gap in Republicans’ environmental attitudes.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls – including a new report from Pew on Americans’ attitudes toward different energy sources, new battleground polling on a potential reconciliation package in Congress, and new polling about carbon removal.

Legislation along the lines of the Build Back Better Act is overwhelmingly popular in key U.S. Senate battlegrounds, with clear electoral benefits for incumbents if it passes. On the specific question of how support for this legislation would translate to electoral benefits for incumbents who back it, the poll finds that voters in the four battlegrounds (Nevada, Georgia, New Hampshire, and Arizona) are 23 to 33 points more likely to say that the legislation would make them more inclined to vote for their incumbent than less inclined. 14% of those who do not currently approve of the incumbent say they would be more likely to vote for them if they help pass this legislation. Across the four states, 62% say they would be more motivated and enthusiastic about voting in the elections this November if Congress took action and actually passed this legislation. Democrats in particular would be more motivated to vote (81%), including many Democrats who currently express a lower degree of enthusiasm about voting.

A majority of Georgia residents strongly support new solar and wind power capacity over new coal-fired plants and believe the state should set a carbon emissions reduction goal. 60% of Georgia residents support the creation of a state carbon emissions reduction goal, which includes 74% of Democrats, 52% of independents, and 45% of Republicans. 70% support new solar power and 64% support new wind power. Only 30% support new coal-fired power plants. 75% of Democrats, 55% of independents, and 49% of Republicans supported development of a climate resiliency plan for Georgia to prepare for the impacts of climate change.

The Build Back Better plan has majority support in key congressional swing districts, and ‘polluters pay’ laws and renewable energy investments are especially popular. These district-specific polls show that the Build Back Better plan has majority support in two very tough Democratic-held congressional districts. After reading a brief description that outlines the price tag and major provisions, Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux’s constituents in GA-07 support the plan by a 54%-44% margin and Rep. Abigail Spanberger’s constituents in VA-07 support it by a 53%-44% margin. Specific clean energy provisions poll even higher, as voters in GA-07 support measures to accelerate the adoption of renewable energy by a 64%-33% margin and voters in VA-07 support these measures by a 62%-34% margin. One finding from these polls that is broadly applicable regardless of the location you focus on is the salience of corporate accountability on climate change. When presented with the idea of reinstating ‘polluters pay’ laws to “require corporate polluters to fund the clean up of their industry’s toxic pollution and set a fee on oil and gas companies that emit methane,” voters back the idea by overwhelming margins in both GA-07 (72% support / 26% oppose) and VA-07 (68% support / 27% oppose).