Voters Support the Clean Electricity Performance Program
By Danielle Deiseroth
In July 2020, President Biden introduced his ambitious climate plan to kickstart the nation’s shift to clean energy. Now, lawmakers have introduced a plan to achieve one of President Biden’s key policy goals: transitioning the United States to 80 percent clean power by 2030. The proposal, called the Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP), is a $150 billion federal investment that incentivizes utilities to meet certain clean energy goals each year and levies a fee on those that fail to comply.
Earlier this year, Data for Progress and Evergreen Action released a policy report detailing a policy roadmap for decarbonizing the electricity grid through the budget reconciliation process. Throughout 2021, Data for Progress polling has found that voters across the country — including in key battleground states — overwhelmingly support rapidly transitioning our power grid to clean electricity. In a September 2021 national survey, we sought to assess voters’ opinions towards utility companies and the CEPP. We find that voters widely support the CEPP — even when shown talking points pushing back on the proposal. We also find that voters want utilities to prioritize reducing consumer costs; emphasizing the tangible consumer benefits of the CEPP is an effective message to combat opposition to the proposal.
First, we asked voters what they think is most important for utilities to prioritize: Increasing energy efficiency to reduce electricity bills, improving reliability in extreme weather and natural disasters, transitioning to clean energy to address climate change, or reducing pollution. We find that roughly a third of all voters (32 percent) want utilities to prioritize efficiency improvements and cost savings, followed closely by increasing clean energy usage (27 percent) and improving grid reliability (25 percent). Notably, priorities vary across party lines. A plurality of Democrats (38 percent) want utilities to prioritize increasing their clean energy usage — a preference held by only 12 percent of Republicans. Meanwhile, a plurality of Republicans (42 percent) want utilities to prioritize cost savings and efficiency improvements. While priorities may differ among different partisan groups, it is clear that costs, climate, and grid reliability are all factors that are on the minds of voters.
Next, we provided voters with a brief description of the CEPP and asked whether they support or oppose the proposal. By an overwhelming +42-point margin, voters support the CEPP (66 percent support, 24 percent oppose). Nearly all Democrats (85 percent) and over two-thirds of Independents (69 percent) support the proposal. While Republicans are narrowly opposed to the CEPP by only a −5-point margin, the proposal enjoys support from 43 percent of these voters — a notable finding given that many Republicans in Congress typically express opposition to climate and clean energy investments.
Given that some lawmakers and outside groups have started expressing opposition to the CEPP, we decided to test the resiliency of support for the proposal when faced with pushback. We asked respondents which statement was more convincing: One of three randomly assigned statements in favor of the CEPP, and a statement opposing the proposal that was shown to all voters:
The cost of clean energy is dropping dramatically. The government does not need to provide any incentives to utility companies that are already increasing their usage of clean energy because they know it's better for business.
We find that, in all three cases, voters find the statement in favor of the CEPP more convincing than the statement in opposition to the policy. The most effective message pinned utilities as prioritizing their profits over lowering consumer costs or taking action on climate change, which voters found more convincing by a +16-point margin. Voters found the message that emphasized the effectiveness of government investments in clean energy more convincing by a +13-point margin, while voters found the message centered on the urgency of addressing climate change more convincing by a +9-point margin.
As Congress moves to pass President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, it is clear that voters widely support the CEPP. Voters want utilities to deliver improvements such as lower consumer costs, improved grid reliability, and a reduction in harmful emissions — all of which a CEPP can catalyze. Lawmakers should feel confident supporting this critical component of President Biden’s plan to both tackle climate change and improve America’s electricity grid.
Survey Methodology
From September 23 to 26, 2021, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 1,234 likely voters nationally using web panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, and voting history. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error is ±3 percentage points.