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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   27430 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 2026

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Why are Americans becoming more anti-renewable?

The share of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who say the country should prioritize oil, coal and natural gas over wind and solar power has doubled to 71% over the last six years. Majorities of Republicans see wind and solar power as less reliable than other energy sources, and decreasing shares of Republicans say wind and solar energy is better for the environment.

With rising energy costs and increased demand, Americans are still more likely to say that renewable energy should be prioritized over fossil fuels. But that share continues to drop: 57% say this today, down from 79% in 2020. About eight-in-ten Democrats and Democratic leaners (83%) say the country should give priority to developing wind and solar production, but this share has also ticked downward in the last few years.

Wind and solar attract the most support, with about two-thirds (65%) calling for policies to expand production from these sources. And coal mining attracts the least support, with more saying the government should discourage (36%) this activity than encourage it (27%). Americans have more mixed views of other sources, with none attracting majority support, but also none facing large opposition.

Republicans have long been less supportive of wind and solar production than Democrats. In 2022, a slim majority (54%) of Republicans supported government policies to encourage production of these renewable sources. In four years, that has dropped 10 percentage points to 44%. This is consistent with past Center surveys, which found that the shares of Republicans who say they support more wind power and solar power both dropped by more than 20 points from 2020 to 2025. An overwhelming majority of Democrats (85%) continue to say the federal government should encourage the production of wind and solar power.

The opposite pattern emerges with fossil fuel sources: Republicans have been more supportive than Democrats of federal programs to encourage these sources, and the share in favor of such programs has grown. 62% of Republicans now say the federal government should encourage oil and gas drilling, up 11 percentage points since January 2022. 45% of Republicans say the federal government should encourage coal mining, up 13 points in four years. Much smaller shares of Republicans say the federal government should discourage oil and gas drilling (8%) or coal mining (14%). Just as in the Biden years, Democrats are far more likely to say the federal government should discourage rather than encourage oil and gas drilling and coal mining.

As with other attitudes around renewable energy, Republicans are less likely than they were five years ago to say solar and wind power are better for the environment. Republicans are 14 percentage points less likely now to say that solar power is better for the environment than most other energy sources. Similarly, there has been a 12-point drop in the share of Republicans who say that wind power is better for the environment than most other energy sources. About three-in-ten Republicans (29%) now say wind power is worse for the environment, up 12 points from five years ago. More Republicans say wind (44%) and solar (43%) cost consumers more than other energy sources than say these cost less than other sources (19% and 24%, respectively).

Americans view both solar and wind power as less reliable than other energy sources (though more Americans say wind is less reliable than say the same about solar). Republicans are especially negative about these sources’ reliability. This year, Republicans are far more likely to say solar and wind power are less reliable rather than more reliable compared with other energy sources, while Democrats are more mixed. Democrats are split on the reliability of wind power, and they’re more likely to think solar power is more reliable than less reliable.

Landman really is that popular, huh? Battery tech has only gotten better and cheaper, and the LCOE of renewables even with storage added is competitive with or better than fossil fuels, yet public opinion is backsliding. Gas is still great because the US has so much of it, but the DoE is even trying to force coal plants to keep running at cost to consumers, even when states and operators want them retired. Coal miners can't be that large of a constituency, surely, so what's driving this obsession in particular?

There have been a lot of green energy initiatives in my area. Every time, the initiative claims that it will create jobs and lower utility prices, and do so with minimal disruption to the local environment and community.

This is, inevitably, bullshit. The jobs never materialize. Our power bill goes up even faster than it had been rising before. Entire sections of forest get torn out and replaced with a few half-assed plantings of non-native softwoods. Even us dumb, cousin-fucking rednecks catch on to the game eventually.

Beyond that, I've noticed that "green energy" is for the peasants. For the things that actually matter to the neo-aristocracy right now, like data centers, we're burning fossil fuels like never before with local gas turbines.

At this point, I'm thoroughly fatigued by it. Whenever somebody hectors me about installing grid scale renewable energy, my default response is "you go first".

This is, inevitably, bullshit. The jobs never materialize.

Good, the more jobs necessary for power generation the less efficient it is for society (the workers can now go do something else people want and utility rate increases!) and the more costly it will be for people who need power.

Unfortunately due to NIMBYism, companies have to convince the local shortsighted idiots who don't understand the point of a job is to get something done and not to just give random citizen Joe some money so they'll often over promise on that.

Our power bill goes up even faster than it had been rising before.

Yeah, there's been a huge surge in demand for electricity now what with the data centers and whatever else. New power generation is like a +10 while power demand is a -20 right now and we need to get even more power so it can be like a +25/-20 situation instead. Unfortunately state regulations and local zoning laws are hostile to new construction of basically any kind, so electricity NIMBYism is fucking us over just like housing NIMBYism is screwing over homebuyers and renters.

Entire sections of forest get torn out and replaced with a few half-assed plantings of non-native softwoods.

All energy production is disruptive, so is it much worse than other methods is the important question.

Ideally the point of a job is to get something done.

The problem is, the message that our society sends people through both words and actions is that hard, productive work is for idiots and if you want to ever escape the rat race you should hustle and cut corners and only focus on your own bottom line no matter what.

The average person might actually be most likely to succeed in life by doing good, honest, productive work. But even if that's true, the data that supports it being true would be buried in dry statistics somewhere. Meanwhile, we see an endless parade of people like Pelosi with her remarkable investment acumen, Trump the narcissistic bully who was born rich and genuinely does not seem to know any way of life other than corruption, and all the Kardashians of the world who are famous for being good at being famous.

Which is not to say that politics and entertainment can't be productive work. Politicians can do a lot of good to organize society. Entertainers bring joy to people. But the most visible exemplars of both politicians and entertainers are people who charismamaxxed their way to the top and/or are corrupt.

Meanwhile, we see an endless parade of people like Pelosi with her remarkable investment acumen, Trump the narcissistic bully who was born rich and genuinely does not seem to know any way of life other than corruption, and all the Kardashians of the world who are famous for being good at being famous.

To be a successful politician for this long does take some genuine skill somewhere. Tons and tons of people try and fail. There's tons of competition and political threats to you and getting away with such brazen corruption like Trump or Pelosi requires continued popularity and support. Often the skill is the same sort of thing that the Kardashians provide, taking short term victories and turning it into their long term empires. They easily could have been like the many many people who only see minor fame for a few years (or even just a month), but they took it and turned it into a greater opportunity. They might seem trashy to us, but that doesn't change that they're providing entertainment or hope or whatever to tens/hundreds of millions of people worldwide and those people are willing to pay money/watch commercials/etc other forms of profiting off that. The Kardashians are getting stuff done too, even if I don't personally enjoy them.

Or another way to look at it. I think religion is mostly hogwash, but I can still understand what the point of churches and pastors and religious movies and music is. Other people do believe in it, and thus those things are still getting stuff done

Politicians and entertainers are people who charismamaxxed

Yes. Of course politicians and entertainers are people who generally appeal to some meaningfully sized subset of the population. Trump has basically formed a roughly 30-35% cult of personality around him, where like the only thing I can think of where he didn't manage to control his followers brains around in circles is with vaccines. This helps make him very successful against any would be conservative challengers or criticism.

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