WASHINGTON, D.C. – The vast majority of Americans support an all-of-the-above-energy strategy that includes coal and are concerned that the rush to transition to renewable energy is going to sacrifice our ability to keep the lights on, according to new national polling released today by the National Mining Association (NMA) and conducted by Maru Public Opinion.
“The EPA is working to hijack our nation’s energy policy through irrational and unattainable compliance measures that are forcing well-operating power plants into premature retirement. Compounding the problem, the EPA is now putting all of our reliability eggs in one basket – natural gas – doubling down on the grid’s greatest reliability vulnerability,” said Rich Nolan, NMA President and CEO, referring to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to target coal plants and exempt natural gas plants from its forthcoming emissions rule. “Without reliable generation and enabling transmission infrastructure to replace it, experts are warning of energy rationing and blackouts, and this polling shows more and more Americans are aware of those risks, are concerned and want the administration to change course.”
The data show growing concern for the impact of the speed of the transition on electricity reliability:
- 78 percent of Americans support an all of the above energy strategy that includes coal (just 10 percent do not support and 12 percent don’t know).
- 72 percent of Americans are concerned about the speed of the transition’s impacts on reliability (18 percent are not concerned and 11 percent don’t know). This number is up from 52 percent in May 2023, the last time the NMA polled on this question.
- 65 percent believe we should pause closures of existing, well-operating power plants until replacement generating capacity is in place and operational (17 percent disagree and 17 percent don’t know). This is up from 56 percent in May 2023, the last time the NMA polled on this question.
The new polling, which was conducted Feb. 26-28, 2024, from 1,502 Americans, carries a +/-2.5 percent margin of error.
Methodology
This Maru Public Opinion survey conducted on behalf of National Mining Association (NMA) was undertaken by the sample and data collection experts at Maru/Blue. 1,502 randomly selected American adults who are Unlock Survey (formerly Maru Springboard America) online panelists were surveyed from February 26th to February 28th, 2024. For comparison purposes, a probability sample of this size has an estimated margin of error (which measures sampling variability) of +/- 2.5%, 19 times out of 20. The results have been weighted by age, gender, race and region to match the population according to Census data which ensures the sample is representative of the entire adult population. Discrepancies in or between totals when compared to the data tables are due to rounding.
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