Environmental groups whistling past the graveyard?

How to read the polls

The Sierra Club and NRDC both contended that because the public so strongly supports renewable energy, lawmakers aren’t able to ignore it. In initial comments, another national environmental group, Friends of the Earth U.S. (FOE), agreed. But unpacking the poll numbers reveals a more complex picture.

A 2010 poll conducted by two independent polling firms for the American Wind Energy Association, for example, found that 89 percent of American voters “believe increasing the amount of energy the nation gets from wind is a good idea.” The Solar Energy Industries Association found in its 2012 poll, conducted by Hart Research, that 92 percent of American voters feel it is “very important” or “somewhat important” for the U.S. “to develop and use solar power.”

But a crucial element of the now-current political and media narrative is to treat environmentally friendly measures as the enemy of job creation and cost savings. A 2012 survey by McLaughlin & Associates, for example, took exactly this line, asking American voters who they agreed with more: “Those who say we need more regulations to reduce the use of fossil fuels to protect the environment from climate change,” or, “Those who would reduce federal regulations to increase American energy production in order to create jobs and lower the cost of fuel and electricity.” When presented with the issues in this way, respondents favored fewer regulations by a margin of more than two-to-one (61 percent to 28 percent).

The Sierra Club’s Duvall acknowledged the existence of public concerns with the supposed costs of environmental protection, but maintained her position. “Yes [people] have concerns about how things get implemented and they’re concerned about creating jobs and they don’t want to pay more on their energy bill,” she said. “But at the end of the day they actually do believe in clean energy.”

In a follow-up email to Duvall, we asked her to respond to the proposition that, even if one relied on polls that showed overwhelming support for the basic idea of increasing the use of renewables (polls that didn’t force the public to treat renewable energy production as contrary to economic development and their own pocketbook interests), that support, consistent over the last decade, hasn’t translated into meaningful, lasting renewable energy policy. Duvall did not respond.

Seeing a more sobering outlook

Remapping Debate queried Ben Schreiber, a tax analyst at FOE, about the wisdom of accepting what is perhaps superficial support for renewable energy as a sign of real progress. While broad support for more solar and wind has helped bring change, “It hasn’t translated into transformative change where we’re talking about a real shift away from fossil fuels,” he said. “Those [poll] numbers suggest that the public believes in renewable energy, and that’s an important first step and that’s important progress. [But] that is a far cry from the American public having a full grasp of the fact that we actually can deal with climate change in a reasonable way and it’s going to take massive investment and a huge government commitment.”

Schreiber also acknowledged that, “the terms of the debate have shifted in a way that shows we’ve lost ground. I think the ‘all-of-the-above’ energy scenario is the perfect example of that,” he said. “The debate used to be about moving away from fossil fuels — and fossil fuels are just assumed to part of the mix now.” He then added, “Climate change isn’t even part of the debate any more.”

Others are worried as well.

Rob Sargent, Energy Program director at Environment America (EA), a national network of local ecology groups, said, “I think overall the public is still mostly with us, and I do think that over time, I have to believe, things will be okay.” EA’s work has been relatively successful, Sargent said, citing that solar panels, plug-in hybrid cars, and green buildings are “no longer niche.” However, he admitted that short-term prospects for renewables have become more challenging. “It’s troubling how polarized the energy debate has gotten,” he said.

350.org, an environmental organization devoted to reducing the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to a safe level, sees the current situation as dire. “We’re facing an absolute climate catastrophe,” said Daniel Kessler, the group’s media campaigner. “And the president doesn’t talk about that.” In 350.org’s analysis, the American political system is in crisis. “Part of the reason why it’s badly broken is the just absolutely outsized influence the fossil fuel industry has over the political system,” Kessler said.

Unlike many other people Remapping Debate talked to, Kessler readily admitted that the methods his group has used thus far haven’t succeeded. “I’m not going to tell you that our strategies are working, because obviously they’re not,” he said. “But we’re trying as hard as we can.”