Cheerleading is Dumb Energy Policy

A sneak peek at what energy Americans favor from our AEI Energy/Climate Survey

Go team!!

Any moment now, we will be releasing the full results of the AEI Energy/Climate Survey of the American public that my AEI colleague Ruy Teixeira and I conducted right before the election. The survey provides a fascinating snapshot of what Americans think about a wide range of climate and energy issues.

Today, I share some what the survey says about American’s preferences for energy production technologies. To be clear, the survey results are measures of vibes and not the result of detailed economic, technological, trade, or environmental considerations. But they do tell us where the American public is with respect to energy technologies in the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) that are right now subject to political and expert debate.

That debate has mostly devolved into simplistic cheerleading —

• Fossil Fuels! Go Team! No subsidies for renewables!

• Boo FF! Go solar and wind, Rah! Rah!

• Nukes FTW! A Cinderella story!

Cheerleading is a dumb way to approach energy policy.

It turns out that normal Americans might just be ahead of the experts and politicians. Let’s take a look at some interesting results from our survey.

First, the “iron law” reigns supreme. Most people prioritize energy costs and availability when asked what is most important about the energy they consume.

Second, when asked what overall approach they support for energy policy, when given a choice between a rapid green transition, stopping the push to replace fossil fuels, or an “all of the above” strategy — it is the latter which most Americans support, by far, shown in the left panel in the figure below.

In fact, when we drill down into the details, remarkably, support for an “all of the above” approach to energy policy is the only issue in our entire survey where there was unanimous, majority support across all demographics and political orientations, as you can see below.

If I were asked by an elected official about how to talk effectively to their constituents about U.S. energy policy, I’d recommend starting by endorsing an “all of the above” approach. “All of the above” leaves plenty of room to characterize the details, such as focusing on the “all of the above” that makes sense economically and technologically.

Energy policy should offer easy political wins for both Democrats and Republicans, and is a target-rich environment for smart policy. The word “should” is doing a lot of work there!

What might an “all of the above” approach to energy policy look like?

The figure below provides a hint — it shows the change in energy consumption in the US (blue) and China (red) from 2024 to 2025. China far outpaced the US across the board, with the exception of oil consumption, which China reduced by a greater amount that the US, which is good for China’s energy security as it is a heavy oil importer. China’s “all of the above” energy consumption growth is leaving the U.S. far behind.

All energy technologies have their place, but the details matter — THB readers will know that I am very bullish on solar but not so much for wind. Nuclear has a bright future and coal is no doubt on its way out. If we don’t get smart about energy policy, China is going to eat our lunch.

A final point for today for members of Congress grappling with the unwieldy OBBB (which is no way to implement energy policy, but I digress). The table below from our report shows how U.S. citizens rank different energy technologies.

Solar is the most popular, followed by natural gas. Support for coal, wind, and nuclear is much more mixed. If we look at the details, in the table below, it turns out that support for solar is particularly robust (except for Republican/conservative/Trump voters).

I’ll discuss further details from our survey in the coming days when it is released.

It turns out that most Americans are pragmatic centrists when it comes to energy policy — lower costs, security of supply, and a balanced portfolio of energy systems has strong, bipartisan support.

Now if only we had elected officials to reflect citizen common sense . . .

Please click that “❤️ Like”. More likes mean that THB rises in the Substack algorithm and gets in front of more readers. Thanks!

Comments welcomed; Debate and discussion encouraged!

THB exists because of the support of its paid subscribers! Please consider a subscription — free, paid, founding — all are welcome and appreciated. Reminder: Paid subscribers have access to several of my books and paywalled posts at the For Paid Subscribers page.