The North Carolina League for Conservation Voters Foundation shares the results of a new poll on climate, clean energy, and related issues. The poll shows strong support for transitioning to clean energy, reducing the use of fossil fuels, and shows that North Carolina voters recognize the rise of extreme weather events and the link to climate change.
Download the poll results here.
A large majority of North Carolina voters (75%) say it is important for the state to increase its use of clean and renewable energy sources and reduce its use of fossil fuels (62%). Additionally, two in three voters (67%) want North Carolina to speed up the transition to clean and renewable energy.
Clean and renewable energy sources are highly popular with North Carolinians. Respondents were given a variety of energy sources (rotated during the survey) and asked for their feelings towards them. Solar energy (79%) was the most favorable form of energy amongst the respondents, with fossil fuels (46%), nuclear (42%), and coal (41%) energy as the least favorable forms.
Other key findings related to climate change, the increase of extreme weather events, and the link between the two. Over half of North Carolinians recognize the rise of extreme weather events (59%) and the link to climate change (53%).
“We are excited to see such strong support from North Carolinians to increase the use of clean and renewable energy and the need to transition away from dirty fossil fuels,” said Carrie Clark, executive director for NCLCVF. “It’s also affirming that North Carolina voters clearly recognize the increase of extreme weather events and understand the link with climate change.”
Additionally, North Carolina voters are highly favorable to President Biden’s clean energy policies, once they are aware of what the policies entail. Four policies from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act were described. Favorability for those policies ranged from a high of 79% for improving the electrical grid to facilitate more clean energy use and increase reliability in extreme weather, 76% for new jobs and job training, 69% for providing incentives to businesses and consumers that significantly reduce the cost of clean energy technologies that save them money and reduce pollution, to 66% for expanding and speeding up the transition to clean energy sources and ensuring that clean energy technologies will be developed and manufactured in the United States. Finally, there is broad support (73%) for North Carolina accepting federal funding from the Biden clean energy plan to invest in the state.
The poll was conducted by Hart Research, one of the premiere research firms in the United States. It was an online survey of 813 registered voters in North Carolina, and was fielded Sep 8-15, 2023, with a margin of error of +/-3.8%. National results cited in the research were also from polling conducted by Hart Research for the League of Conservation Voters and Climate Power in September 2023 using similar phrasing. For more than 50 years, Hart has been at the leading edge of public opinion research, surveying nearly 5 million individuals to provide insights to elected leaders and candidates, advocacy organizations, trade associations, foundations, and corporations.
