Knowledge is power? Information, partisan cleavages, and support for energy infrastructure

Abstract

Partisanship and ideology, environmental attitudes, government trust, and related beliefs and values can influence public opinion on clean energy and climate change. Few studies have examined how factual information about the energy sector relates to public support for different types of energy infrastructure. Using an original survey of 1,342 residents of the U.S. state of Georgia, regression analysis, and a survey experiment, we test whether energy knowledge is associated with support for renewable and fossil fuel energy infrastructure, and if political identities moderate this relationship. We find that respondents with more factual information about energy are more likely to support solar panels, wind farms, transmission lines, and energy efficient technologies—key building blocks of the clean energy transition. Conversely, we observe a partisan wedge in energy knowledge for two fossil fuels: Greater energy knowledge corresponds with opposition to coal plants only among Democrats and support for natural gas only among Republicans. The information treatment in the survey experiment has no effect, suggesting that factual information alone may not change opinion. Altogether, our research shows that knowledge corresponds with greater support for renewable and efficient energy technologies but that politics and values may compete with facts in shaping views, particularly on fossil fuel infrastructure.