Texas

Texas voters continue to say that the state government isn’t doing enough to protect Texas from climate change, but are confused about who to blame for the state’s energy problems. Texans who are experiencing higher home energy prices are about equally likely to say that President Biden (54%) and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (56%), or ERCOT, deserve a “great deal” of blame for their higher energy bills. When they are informed that the Texas electricity grid is independent and therefore not subject to regulation by the federal government, however, Texas voters are 26 points more likely to say that ERCOT deserves a “great deal” of blame (65%) than President Biden (39%).

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polling on the two parties’ approaches to climate change; the connection between hurricanes and climate change; and energy issues in Texas.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new national polling on climate change, plastic pollution, and the seafood industry as well as new state polling in Texas about the state’s energy policies. 

Texas voters view the clean energy transition as a net positive for the state economy, and most want to see their state leadership strengthen regulations on utilities and fossil fuel companies. 65% of Texans agree that state leaders such as Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton didn’t do enough to protect consumers with high energy bills following Winter Storm Uri, and two-thirds (67%) believe that the federal government should investigate possible price gouging by power companies during the storm. Additionally, only 35% believe that the Texas state government is doing enough to prepare the state for the impacts of climate change. The clear majority (64%) support more regulations on power companies and oil and gas producers “given the disruptions to the power grid and high energy prices caused by Winter Storm Uri in February 2021.” And by a 56%-34% margin, Texans side more with an argument that “regulations on energy companies need to be stronger in Texas to ensure power stays on and to protect Texas consumers from high prices” than a competing argument that “regulations on energy companies are an overstep of the government, don’t usually deliver the benefits they promise, and are not worth the cost.” Importantly, the poll also finds that more Texans believe that the clean energy transition will improve Texas’s economy (47%) than worsen it (35%).

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including a new messaging experiment to determine the most persuasive ways to talk about clean energy costs, findings from Yale’s latest mapping of climate change attitudes across the country, new polling on corporate accountability, and a new poll on Texas voters’ attitudes about climate and clean energy a year after the Texas Freeze.

This post includes a roundup of climate + environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from this week’s public polls - including fresh polling on the new Build Back Better framework and its core climate and energy provisions + analysis of climate polling trends throughout the year + new polling on attitudes about climate and clean energy among Latino voters in battleground states and districts.

A collection of interviews, articles, short essays and art - a zine made by youth and community organizers in the Greater Southwest.

Survey of 500 Texans in the immediate aftermath of the extreme cold weather and resulting power outages found: 

• Respondents expressed concern about extreme cold (78%), power outages caused by weather events (83%), and access to clean drinking water (76%). Concern spanned community types, and was highest (80%) among rural respondents. 
• 79% say it should be a priority for the U.S. to pass legislation to address climate change
• Majorities across Texas support a wide range of legislative measures to prevent future power outages, including: increasing use of clean energy (77%), improving energy efficiency (92%), increasing existing energy storage capabilities (88%), making power sources more resilient to extreme weater (93%), and modernizing the U.S. power grid more broadly (83%).

A  statewide survey to assess the attitudes of likely Texas voters (including an oversample of Latino voters) toward climate change, pollution, and transitioning to clean energy revealed key insights, including:

• Across party lines, voters are overwhelmingly concerned (85%) about air and water pollution.
• 67% are concerned about climate change, with Latino (82%) and Black (80%) voters expressing the highest levels of concern.
• Voters also agree (61%) that there is still time to come together as a state and country to take the actions that are necessary to address climate change and leave a better world for generations to come. Agreement is highest (72%) among Latino voters.
• A strong majority (59%) also would like to see their leaders support clean energy industries to reduce carbon emissions and ensure Texas remains America’s energy leader, with support highest among Black (77%) and Latino (66%) voters.
• A message that resonates across party lines is that Texas can face tough problems and can leverage its status as a national and global energy leader to become a champion of a new global energy economy.
• 83% agree that Texas should make sure no oil and gas workers are left behind as America transitions away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy. 
• A majority also think it is “Very important” or “Somewhat important” to include proposals for job training (89% important), new jobs in clean energy (87% important), pensions for retired workers (85% important), financial assistance for new degrees or trade certifications (83%), and buyouts for workers within five years of retirement (78%) in this transition bill.
• Texas voters also support closing the revolving door of government officials becoming lobbyists for the fossil fuel industry, with a majority of Texans across parties (52%) supporting a proposal that would prevent former lawmakers from becoming lobbyists for the oil and gas industry immediately after leaving office.