Report · Oct 20, 2021
Politics & Global Warming, September 2021
By Anthony Leiserowitz, Edward Maibach, Seth Rosenthal, John Kotcher, Jennifer Carman, Liz Neyens, Matthew Goldberg, Karine Lacroix and Jennifer Marlon
Filed under: Policy & Politics and Behaviors & Actions
3. Energy Production as an Economic Issue
3.1. About half of registered voters think policies that promote clean energy will improve economic growth and create jobs.
About half of registered voters (52%) think policies that promote clean energy will improve economic growth and create jobs, while about three in ten (31%) think it will have the opposite effect, reducing growth and costing jobs, and 16% think it will have no impact either way.The full text of the survey item and response categories are: Please indicate which one of these statements comes closest to your own views – even if it is not exactly right: Overall, government policies intended to transition away from fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) and toward clean energy (solar, wind) will… (a) Improve economic growth and provide new jobs; (b) Have no impact on economic growth or jobs; (c) Reduce economic growth and cost jobs.
Opinion is sharply divided along political lines – large majorities of liberal Democrats (85%) and moderate/conservative Democrats (69%) think clean energy policies will have a positive impact on the economy and jobs, while 39% of liberal/moderate Republicans and 71% of conservative Republicans think they will have a negative impact.
3.2. Most registered voters think the clean energy industry will create more good jobs than the fossil fuel industry.
More than six in ten registered voters (64%) think increasing production of clean energy in the U.S. will produce more new jobs than will increasing fossil fuel production, while about one in three (35%) think the opposite (that increasing fossil fuel production will create more jobs than will increasing clean energy production).The full text of the survey item and response categories are: Generally speaking, which do you think will produce more good jobs in the U.S.? (a) Increasing production of clean energy such as wind and solar; (b) Increasing production of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas.
Large majorities of liberal Democrats (94%) and moderate/conservative Democrats (83%), and about half of liberal/moderate Republicans (52%) think clean energy production will produce more good jobs. In contrast, about three in four conservative Republicans (77%) think increasing fossil fuel production will create more good U.S. jobs.
