Public Perceptions of Energy Scarcity and Support for New Energy Technologies: A Western U.S. Case Study

Buylova, Alexandra; Steel, Brent S.; Simon, Christopher A.

doi:10.3390/en13010238

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 42 publications

(64 reference statements)

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“…Finally, higher NEP respondents are also more supportive of the price discrimination policies of charging higher rates during high use times and for high-end energy users. These results also contribute to the growing literature focused on the impact of environmental values on energy policy preferences and behaviors [39][40][41][42].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 54%

Ideology and Value Determinants of Public Support for Energy Policies in the U.S.: A Focus on Western States

Wolters¹,

Steel²,

Warner³

2020

Energies

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Energy policy is often a contentious issue in the U.S. in the areas of infrastructure, conservation, and price discrimination. From the siting of new pipelines, conservation regulations, and variable pricing based on times and usage, many policies have been met by intense opposition as well as support from a variety of sources. In this context, this study examines individual-level attributes (e.g., political ideology, environmental values, and demographic characteristics) that lead to support for or opposition to infrastructure, conservation, and price discrimination policies. The identification of demographic and value correlates of energy policy preferences is important for the successful development of energy policies. Data from 2019 random household surveys in the U.S. western states of California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington are used to examine the variation in views on a variety of energy policies. Multivariate analyses reveal that those with more liberal political ideology and people holding stronger pro-environmental values (as measured by the New Ecological Paradigm) were more likely to support conservation campaigns, energy efficiency, funding for renewable energy technology and price discrimination policies than those who held more conservative views. Several demographic variables also have a significant impact on support for or opposition to policies concerning infrastructure, conservation, and price discrimination. Younger people and people with higher levels of formal education are more likely to support voluntary energy conservation campaigns and increased funding for research into renewable energy technologies, and people with higher incomes are more supportive of requiring high-energy efficiency standards in new construction. Finally, state residency independently affected policy preferences with Idahoans’ views more consistent with political conservatives and those lower on the NEP than residents of the other three western states. These findings should be useful to policy makers as they work toward the development of energy policies.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 54%

Ideology and Value Determinants of Public Support for Energy Policies in the U.S.: A Focus on Western States

Wolters¹,

Steel²,

Warner³

2020

Energies

Self Cite

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“…Environmental issues have been a topic of ever-increasing concern globally, and current times can fairly be considered as somewhat defined by universal concern for the natural environment and climate change (Bergquist and Warshaw 2019;Brulle et al 2012). Increasing pollution, energy scarcity, the loss of biodiversity, global change in temperature, and other environmental issues seem to be at the forefront of societal concern alongside other global issues (Buylova et al 2020;Skogen et al 2018;Wuebbles and Jain 2001). Thus, one might expect some universality in the concern and ways to address these issues, yet environmental issues often spark heated political debate, and there are disagreements on both the severity of the issues and how to solve them (McCright et al 2015;Dunlap et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Beliefs as a Moderator for Predicting Environmental Citizenship through Environmental Education and Environmental Literacy

Poškus

2023

Social Sciences

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Promoting environmental citizenship can be a strong positive force toward addressing our current environmental issues. Informed individuals that act in pro-environmental ways both publicly and privately, as well as engage in civic action aimed at addressing environmental issues, are a substantial force for positive change. However, there is a well-known political divide between the political left and political right, where left-leaning individuals tend to engage more in environmental action that right-leaning individuals. The present study explores whether environmental education and environmental literacy might hold the key for right-wing participation in environmental citizenship. A representative sample of 700 Lithuanian emerging adults (20–39 years of age, mean age 30.6 years, 50% female) was used in the present study. Participants filled in measures of their political orientation, environmental citizenship, environmental literacy, and environmental (self-)education. The results showed that, as expected, left-leaning views were positively associated with environmental citizenship, but when interactions between political orientation and environmental literacy as well as environmental (self-)education were introduced, right-leaning views tended to increase the association between environmental citizenship and environmental literacy as well as environmental (self-)education. The results show a promising outlook toward using quality education to promote environmental citizenship among right-leaning individuals.

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“…While acceptance of renewable energy sources is not as polarizing an issue as climate change, policy initiatives such as the Green New Deal have incited partisan opinions on energy sources [ 7 ]. While there is support amongst Americans for the transition to renewable energy sources in the future [ 2 , [8] , [9] , [10] , [11] ], opposition to moving away from fossil fuels exists in a substantial portion of the population, as renewable energy is linked to global climate issues that are more political and ideological in nature [ [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] , [16] , [17] ]. Investigating differences of opinion with traditional social science methods provides valuable insights into the views of Americans, but focusing only on support for energy as a general concept instead of investigating the complex interplay of beliefs among clusters of people is a limited method to capture overall attitudes toward energy preferences.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Clustering energy support beliefs to reveal unique sub-populations using self-organizing maps

Bedle¹,

Garneau²,

Arroyo³

2023

Heliyon

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Public Perceptions of Energy Scarcity and Support for New Energy Technologies: A Western U.S. Case Study

Cited by 8 publications

References 42 publications

Ideology and Value Determinants of Public Support for Energy Policies in the U.S.: A Focus on Western States

Ideology and Value Determinants of Public Support for Energy Policies in the U.S.: A Focus on Western States

Political Beliefs as a Moderator for Predicting Environmental Citizenship through Environmental Education and Environmental Literacy

Clustering energy support beliefs to reveal unique sub-populations using self-organizing maps

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