Public opinion is one of the most important drivers of the nation’s energy future. It can serve both as a serious constraint on some forms of energy production (e.g. widespread public unease with nuclear power following Three Mile Island has contributed to the near-freeze on reactor construction since the late 1970s), and an incentive toward others. As a result, energy policy scholars have emphasized the importance of understanding the global and local factors that influence Americans’ support for various sources of energy. Past research has told us a great deal about public support for fossil fuels, nuclear, and renewables such as solar and wind. Yet despite research showing that public opinion is critical to the widespread implementation of biomass-to-energy systems, surprisingly few studies have examined the foundations of public support for biomass in the United States. To fill this gap, we replicated a module from the Harvard-MIT Energy Survey on the nationally representative 2014 Cooperative Congressional Election Survey. We queried subjects’ support for increasing reliance on fossil fuels, nuclear, solar, wind, and biomass for energy generation. Biomass enjoys much less public support than other renewables. Regression analyses also show that the factors predicting support for biomass are very different than for other renewables. In sharp contrast to other renewables, support for action to combat global warming is only a weak predictor of support for biomass. Education is also a stronger predictor of support, making biomass more like nuclear than solar or wind. Our results suggest a significant potential to raise public support for biomass through educational efforts to improve public understanding of the technology and combat misperceptions.

Bridging science and policy: Raising public support for renewable energy by increasing public understanding

2019 Spring National Meeting

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