Resource Type: Research & Articles

Convenient at-home charging options and financial incentives are key for encouraging plug-in electric vehicle owners to continue to purchase them. Using survey data from 2015-2019 in California, the authors find that approximately 1 in 5 electric vehicle owners do not purchase an electric vehicle on their next vehicle purchase. Dissatisfaction with home-charging options is the strongest factor determining electric vehicle discontinuance. Having more cars in your household also leads to discontinued electric vehicle use. Finally, those who discontinue electric vehicle use are more likely to say they would not purchase an electric vehicle without yearly incentives to do so.             

SMS texting can boost voter turnout. The results of a field experiment in the 2021 Pennsylvania state primary found that text messages increased voter turnout by 0.8 percentage points. Three specific message wordings were tested: the strongest turnout effect (+1.0 percentage point) came from asking voters to ask their friends and family to vote. Two other messages were called “Fight for your rights” and “Assumed good behavior” increased voter turnout by 0.7 percentage points. All voters targeted were also identified as more likely than the average voter to care about the climate crisis.

Two core ways that movement organizations can build and wield “strategic capacity” are by (1) continuously learning about what tactics have worked and which haven’t and (2) re-organize or adapt its resources to new challenges and opportunities. “Strategic capacity” is the ability of an organization to make decisions with uncertain information about how to deploy its resources to achieve a goal. Democratic governance structures within organizations can be especially key in building and deploying strategic capacity. This report delves into much more detail about each of these components and describes a few organization case studies, such as of Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, Dakota Access Pipeline protests, and 38 Degrees. A secondary attached report provides guidance on how an organization can execute a process to evaluate its own strategic capacity.