FDU PublicMind - July 25, 2001 Release

Garden State "Greener" than the Nation
... on Energy Issues

The latest Public Mind Survey, which compares New Jerseyans' attitudes on energy policy with those of citizens across the nation, reveals several important findings. First, a majority of Americans are unfamiliar with President Bush's energy plan. Second, New Jerseyans think more "greenly" about energy issues than do citizens across the nation. Third, Americans who feel most affected by the energy problem tend to favor increasing energy production over conservation as a strategy for meeting America's energy needs.

Around the nation, support for President Bush's energy plan appears to be mixed. The president's plan received higher marks from our national survey respondents than from our New Jersey respondents. Among citizens across the nation, the Bush proposal garnered above average support from southerners, Republicans, and individuals who reported having heard or read a great deal about energy issues in the recent past. Northeasterners and Democrats, by contrast, were less likely to approve of the president's energy proposal. The Bush proposal also appears to leave unsatisfied those who are most concerned about energy issues. Individuals who perceive the price and availability of energy as a crisis were less likely to approve of the president's proposal than were individuals who view the energy issue as something less than a crisis.

But perhaps the bigger story here is just how few Americans even know about the president's energy proposal. Indeed, 54 percent of our New Jersey respondents and 51 percent of our national respondents reported that they were unaware of the president's energy plan. A surprising 47 percent of respondents from the west coast - an area hit hard this year by electricity shortages - were unfamiliar with the Bush energy proposal.

Americans' lack of familiarity with the president's energy plan didn't keep them from registering their own views on proposals to meet America's energy needs. Large majorities of our New Jersey and national survey respondents believed that "requiring automakers to increase vehicle fuel efficiency" would be a somewhat or very effective way to deal with the nation's energy problems. As Fairleigh Dickinson University political science professor Bruce Larson noted, "These numbers suggest that Americans should be happy with the recent actions of the House Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee - which two weeks ago voted to require automakers to increase the fuel efficiency of minivans and sport-utility vehicles." New Jerseyans and citizens across the nation also liked the idea of providing tax subsidies to consumers and businesses willing to use alternative energy sources.

On the issue of energy production, majorities of both our national and New Jersey samples believed that building new conventional power plants would be an effective way to deal with the nation's energy woes. In contrast, relatively fewer people thought that constructing new nuclear power plants would be effective, and fewer still had faith that relaxing environmental regulations would be an effective solution for meeting America's energy needs.

The PublicMind survey also found that on the broad question of energy production versus conservation, New Jerseyans tend to be "greener" than their fellow Americans. By a margin of 51 to 42 percent, New Jerseyans favored energy conservation over production as a means of dealing with the nation's energy problems. By contrast, our national survey respondents divided equally (at 42 percent) on the issue of conservation versus production. 13 percent of our national respondents and 10 percent of our New Jersey sample said that the United States must both conserve and produce more energy.

Whether respondents in our national sample favored energy production or conservation depended in part on how close to home they perceived the energy issue as hitting. In particular, individuals who perceived the cost and availability of energy as a "crisis" for their states were considerably more likely to favor energy production over energy conservation. In contrast, individuals who perceived the cost and availability of energy as a crisis for the nation as a whole were more likely to favor energy conservation over energy production.

"These numbers suggest that Americans will favor conservation strategies until the energy shortage finds its way to their own states - at which point they may begin to favor increased energy production," noted Larson. "Widespread popular support for Bush's energy plan, then, may require a significant worsening of America's energy situation."

Fairleigh Dickinson Professor, Dr. Bruce Larson can be reached at (973) 443-8727