Voters Support Underground Wires To Reduce Wildfires
By Sean McElwee and Julian Brave NoiseCat
In the wake of a season of historic fires that caused record levels of property damage and threatened much of California’s ecosystem and economy, some California legislators have decided it is time for the state to take charge of its utilities. Recently, California representative Scott Wiener introduced legislation that would turn Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), one of the largest state-granted monopolies in the world, into a public utility.
PG&E is facing bankruptcy stemming from the estimated $30 billion in financial liabilities it accrued throughout the most recent series of fires. At the same time, the measures it took to avoid incurring future liabilities -- shutting off power whenever there was a fire risk -- were politically unpopular, especially as evidence emerged that power shutoffs tended to avoid wealthier cities and neighborhoods. The state’s own stopgap measures failed to be widely adopted, suggesting the need for new rules around equipment safety as well.
Data for Progress and YouGov Blue recently surveyed public takeover of utilities, and of improving regulations around electrical equipment safety, at the national level. Specifically, we tested letting the government take over unsafe or insolvent utilities, and expanding regulations to require wires to be built underground. The survey fielded in November of 2019, as California’s fire season was underway.
First, we asked voters,
Would you [support or oppose] a policy allowing the government to take over public utilities, such as power companies, if they fall into insolvency or fail to provide a certain minimum level of continuous service to their customers? This would effectively allow the government to take ownership of private energy businesses that do not meet service standards.
Overall, voters are statistically tied on the question of letting the government take over utilities by a 37-39 margin, with 24 percent of voters unsure how they feel. Not surprisingly, Democrats lead the way in supporting new government authority over power provision.
Democrats have a lot of room to move public opinion in their favor. Fully 37 percent of Independent voters are currently unsure how they feel about such an idea, as are 25 percent of Democrats and 16 percent of Republicans.
Voters are not split, however, on the need for new regulations. When we asked them about new legislation requiring wires to be built underground, we included two “nudges” on the policy. First, we were explicit that such legislation would “significantly increase” the cost of building new power lines, but also that it would “reduce the risk that downed power lines could start a fire.” In full, we asked voters,
Would you [support or oppose] a policy requiring all new power lines to be built underground? This would significantly increase the cost of building new power lines, but would also reduce the risk that downed power lines could start fires.
In past research, Data for Progress has found it is often important to include information of this kind. Voters who do not live in areas that experience frequent fires are often unaware of the costs associated with relocating wires underground, and because “causing fires” is a particularly vivid consequence of policy, we did not want to give the mistaken impression that reducing disasters attributable to lack of equipment safety would necessarily be easy.
That said, voters have made up their mind: Underground power lines are worth it. By a 63-18 margin, voters support requiring new lines to be build underground even if it would significantly increase energy costs. This includes majorities of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans.
About 70 percent of Democrats support such a requirement. While fully 30 percent of Independents are unsure how they feel about this policy, and outright 51 percent majority of Independents support requiring new lines to be built underground. A majority of Republicans also support such a policy, by a 59-25 margin.
While the public is narrowly split on the question of government acquisition of utilities, they are united in the beliefs there should be more regulation of the electrical grid. The California wildfires are often the consequences of predictable safety lapses, and in private hands energy corporations would apparently prefer to deny electricity to the poor than address safety lapses. Voters agree that it is time for new solutions to these pressing challenges.
Sean McElwee is the Executive Director of Data for Progress.
Julian Brave NoiseCat is the Vice President of Policy & Strategy.
Oh behalf of Data for Progress, YouGov Blue fielded a survey using YouGov’s online panel including 1,216 US voters. The survey fielded from November 9 through November 11, 2019. The results were weighted to be representative of the population of US voters by age, race/ethnicity, sex, education, US Census region, and 2016 presidential vote choice.