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The American Public’s Energy Choice

The American Public’s Energy Choice

Full Title: The American Public’s Energy Choice
Author(s): Stephen Ansolabehere & David M. Konisky
Publisher(s): Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Publication Date: January 1, 2012
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):

Public opinion about energy can be understood in a unified framework. First, people evaluate key attributes of energy sources, particularly a fuel’s cost and environmental harms. Americans, for  example, view coal as relatively inexpensive but harmful, natural gas as less harmful but more expensive,  and wind as inexpensive and not harmful. Second, people place different weights on the economic and  environmental attributes associated with energy production, which helps explain why some fuels are more  popular than others. Americans’ attitudes toward energy are driven more by beliefs about environmental  harms than by perceived economic costs. In addition, attitudes about energy sources are largely unrelated  to views about global warming. These findings suggest that a politically palatable way to reduce green-  house gas emissions is through regulation of traditional pollutants associated with fossil fuels, rather than  a wholly new carbon policy.

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