Public and Elected Official Preferences for Low-Carbon and Renewable Energy Infrastructure Projects: Evidence from Appalachia

• In Event: Greener Futures in Tense Times: Navigating Environmental Policy, Political Ideology, and Economic Well-Being

Abstract

Rapid, large-scale deployment of renewable energy will be necessary to decarbonize the United States energy system, requiring sustained political will and community support across local, state, and national levels. Identifying the dimensions of renewable energy projects that garner support or opposition is critical, especially in Appalachia, which has high renewable energy potential and a legacy of oil and gas extraction. In this study, we ask: what social, political, and aesthetic attributes of large-scale energy projects impact public and political support for their development? Additionally, we examine whether local elected officials understand their constituents’ preferences regarding renewable energy projects.

We examine cross-partisan public and elected official preferences for large-scale energy infrastructure projects across dimensions including distance from residential areas, employment opportunities, local benefits, ownership structures, site types, and types of energy generation. We use a conjoint experiment in two samples in Pennsylvania—a demographically representative sample of residents (n=895) and a sample of local elected officials (n=206)—to evaluate the marginal impact of features of energy projects on support for project development.

Among residents, we find that creation of permanent, union-scale wage jobs, low impact on wildlife habitats, and cooperative community ownership increase support. Support is greater for solar and onshore wind projects than natural gas power plants with carbon capture and storage or nuclear energy, and support decreases for projects with foreign ownership. Considering growing polarization and the politicization of federal climate policy, our results are promising—we see consistent preferences for energy infrastructure projects across parties, and we find that elected officials share similar preferences to residents. However, when asked to estimate the preferences of residents, elected officials underestimate both public support for wind and solar and the importance of employment gain and loss to their constituents.

These results suggest a path forward for renewable energy development, highlighting the importance of considering local impacts on jobs, and potentially working with unions and governments on job retraining programs. However, they also highlight the discrepancy between public opinion and elected officials’ beliefs about those opinions, which could erode support for critical infrastructure projects by key political actors.

Authors

• Sara Constantino, Northeastern University

• Holly Caggiano, Princeton University