Politics

Majority of Americans in favor of transitioning to 100% ‘clean energy’ by 2035, poll finds

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According to new polling from Third Way, in partnership with UC Santa Barbara political scientist Matto Mildenberger, and using data from Data for Progress national surveys, voters from across the country in both blue and red states support the federal government moving the country to 100% “clean energy.”

The polling estimated support from likely voters in every congressional district and state in America. It demonstrates that the majority of voters in all 50 states—and all but six of the 435 US congressional districts—support federal action to reach a 100% clean energy grid.

The poll utilized a statistical model to analyze survey results from 20,455 individuals. Each person was asked the same question: “Would you support or oppose the government moving the country to a 100% clean energy electricity grid by 2035?” Third Way and UC Santa Barbara then used peer-reviewed articles, took the data to “downscale it” by using demographic data from the Census to see how it may apply regionally, state-by-state, and congressional district-by-district.

The poll found that the majority of likely voters in all but 6 congressional districts were in support of 100% clean energy. Mississippi and Alabama, majority republican states, were in support, whereas West Virginia and Wyoming were a couple of the states that had a lower percentage in support for clean energy. The associate professor of political science at UC Santa Barbara, Matto Mildenberger, a co-author of the new report, found that the peer-reviewed techniques used in this study match the true values of independent polling data to within 3 percentage points.

Lindsey Walter, deputy director of Third Way’s climate and energy program, told Axios that “it [the poll] shows us that there is a base of support for federal action to move the country to 100% clean electricity in every single state across the country, and that’s all blue, all red states, swing states.”

The support seemed heavy, even in majority repbulican states, however, due to the failure to ask further questions of what clean energy entails in retrospect, there is no evidence to support that all of the individuals in the poll support clean energy over other policies in the energy department. Third Way also wrote in their polling article that they would need to follow up with the likely voters to ask them what other policies they found better, if they knew it was a policy from President Biden, and if they supported the plan to decarbonize the grid. 

ARTICLE: CASSIE KENNEDY

MANAGING EDITOR: CARSON CHOATE
PHOTO CREDITS: ECO WATCH

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