Environmental Polling Roundup – May 26th, 2023

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls – including new polling on energy costs, clean energy, and accountability for fossil fuel companies + new polling on the debt ceiling + a new report on the reputations of fossil fuel companies and other major brands.

See this webpage for links to the following resources.

HEADLINES

Climate Power + LCV + Fossil Free Media – To address energy costs, Americans widely prefer cracking down on price gouging and expanding clean energy over expanding drilling and pipelines (Memo)

Navigator – Voters don’t want a debt default, and don’t want to cut core programs to reach a deal (Release, Deck)

Axios + Harris – Patagonia tops the list of the country’s most respected brands; fossil fuel companies – especially ExxonMobil and BP – fare poorly (Article)

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The public is on board with a harder line against the fossil fuel industry. Climate Power, LCV, and Fossil Free Media find that voters believe Big Oil is more a part of the problem when it comes to energy prices than a part of the solution. Large majorities support proposals to crack down on price gouging by oil and gas companies and to tax these companies’ excess profits, and this new polling also shows that arguments centering on Big Oil’s greed – including messaging about record profits, price gouging, and stock buybacks – continue to resonate. Meanwhile, the new Axios/Harris ranking of major companies’ brand reputations finds that ExxonMobil and BP have particularly weak standing with the public.
   
• We need to keep driving home that clean energy is better for consumers than fossil fuels, and there are signs that the public is coming around to this idea. When presented with competing approaches to address energy prices, Climate Power, LCV, and Fossil Free Media find that voters widely prefer to boost clean energy while cracking down on Big Oil’s profiteering over expanding oil and gas development. Importantly, they also find that voters believe clean energy companies are helping the situation with energy prices (while believing that oil and gas companies are hurting the situation) and that voters approve of tax breaks and subsidies for clean energy (while they disapprove of tax breaks and subsidies for oil and gas). Continuing to draw this contrast – that clean energy benefits consumers, while Big Oil’s greed is hurting consumers – is critical to counter arguments for an “all-of-the-above” energy approach that includes further fossil fuel expansion.
   

GOOD DATA POINTS TO HIGHLIGHT

• [Energy Prices] By a greater than two-to-one margin (68%-32%), voters prefer to deal with energy prices by “cracking down on price gouging by oil companies, taxing the huge excess profits of oil companies, and expanding energy production from clean energy sources” (68%) over “expanding oil drilling in U.S. oceans and wilderness areas and building more pipelines across the country for transporting oil and gas” (32%) [Climate Power/LCV/Fossil Free Media]
   
• [Energy Prices] Most voters believe that companies involved in solar and wind energy production are making things better for energy consumers (53% better / 15% worse), while they lean toward believing that companies involved in oil and gas are making things worse for energy consumers (29% better / 38% worse) [Climate Power/LCV/Fossil Free Media]
   
• [Clean Energy] 84% of voters support increasing the amount of energy produced from clean energy sources [Climate Power/LCV/Fossil Free Media]
   
• [Clean Energy] 78% of voters approve of subsidies and tax breaks for wind and solar energy companies [Climate Power/LCV/Fossil Free Media]
   
• [Big Oil Accountability] 89% of voters support cracking down on oil and gas companies that engage in price gouging, including 65% who strongly support this idea [Climate Power/LCV/Fossil Free Media]
   
• [Big Oil Accountability] 76% of voters support passing a tax on the excess profits made by oil and gas companies [Climate Power/LCV/Fossil Free Media]
   
• [Big Oil Accountability] 66% of voters disapprove of tax breaks and subsidies for oil and gas companies [Climate Power/LCV/Fossil Free Media]
   
• [Big Oil Accountability] Majorities of voters believe that oil company CEOs (59%) and oil industry lobbyists (55%) are making things worse for consumers when it comes to energy prices [Climate Power/LCV/Fossil Free Media]