Nationalize the Fossil Fuel Industry
By Marcela Mulholland and Ethan Winter
As global demand for oil plummets, fossil fuel companies are finding themselves in an increasingly precarious position, one that likely requires government intervention. While the Trump Administration has considered providing federal assistance to oil companies, some climate advocates are trying to frame an alternative, pushing a plan for the government to take on public ownership of fossil fuel companies. As part of a March survey, Data for Progress tested attitudes to such a proposal. Specifically, we posed voters the following question:
Congress is considering providing financial assistance such as short term loans, financing and cash infusions (commonly called a "bailout") to the fossil fuel industry, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Some Democrats in Congress have proposed having the government take an ownership stake in companies that receive bailout funding. Democrats say that the federal government would be able to influence decisions in the interest of taxpayers, workers, and the environment. Republicans say that the government should not be trying to take ownership in public and this would kill job and economic growth. Do you support or oppose this proposal?
We found that opinions were divided but there was surprisingly high levels of support for such an ambitious proposal. Overall, voters were split on the issue (39 percent support, 39 percent oppose). Voters under the age of forty-five support this proposal by a 21-point margin (52 percent support, 31 percent oppose). While white voters oppose the proposal by 6 points (37 percent support, 43 percent oppose), black voters favor it by 22 points (50 percent support, 28 percent oppose). Looking at responses broken out by partisanship, a majority of Democrats support the policy (52 percent support, 26 percent oppose), while a majority of Republicans oppose it (30 percent support, 56 percent oppose).
Despite the fact that nationalization has been colored as a radical, socialist policy, a majority of people under 45, people with college educations, and large swaths of voters of color support the policy. This support is promising given that some prominent left-leaning climate advocates have argued that public ownership of fossil fuel companies could be an effective way to phase out fossil fuels, promote energy democracy and protect vulnerable workers. Indeed, public ownership would give the government and taxpayers, not fossil fuel CEOs and billionaires, authority to decide what kind of energy future we want. Though it’s unlikely that the current Congress would take up this issue, it’s clear that attitudes among voters are beginning to shift in favor of such a course of action. Voters are coming to see public ownership as part of the policymakers’ toolkit that has been long ignored but should be explored again.
Authorship and Methodology
On March 31 , 2020, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 2165 likely voters nationally using web panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, urbanicity, race, and voting history. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error is ± 2.1 percent.
Marcela Mulholland is Deputy Director for Climate at Data for Progress.
Ethan Winter is an analyst at Data for Progress.