In gas-producing counties in Pennsylvania, Joe Biden gained enough votes over Hillary Clinton alone to wrest the state from Donald Trump. He improved on Clinton’s margin in these counties by three points (Biden -15 / Clinton -18), counties that represent 40% of the state.
In our pre-election polling in these Pennsylvania extraction counties, even as Trump held an eleven-point lead in them, voters wanted Biden’s “middle ground” energy policy.
Our September poll showed that:
These voters take climate change seriously and want to transition to renewable energy, just like Joe Biden.
Most (69%) voters in these gas-producing counties believe that climate change is a very serious or somewhat serious problem.
People see fossil fuels as a bridge to renewable energy, not a permanent solution. Which of these comes closer to your view?
The United States should use some fossil fuels as a bridge to renewable energy sources but work to eliminate it: 55%
The United States should continue to use fossil fuels for the foreseeable future: 29%
The United States should immediately transition to 100 percent renewable energy: 11%
They don’t want to immediately move away from natural gas.
80% support an energy plan that includes a role for both gas and renewable energy,
They strongly oppose “an immediate ban on all natural-gas extraction in the United States” (19% support / 77% oppose) and “an immediate ban on all fracking in the United States” (32% support / 64% oppose).
83% call natural gas a “big jobs provider in Pennsylvania”
These voters mostly didn’t buy Trump’s argument that Biden was “anti-energy”.
Only 48% of voters agreed that “Joe Biden is just like the liberal socialists in his party who want to pass the job-killing Green New Deal, kill the energy industry in our state, and drive up energy costs”.
After hearing Joe Biden’s actual energy policy—that he wants to “continue to use natural gas, he does not support an immediate ban on natural gas or fracking, and that he will pass a law to guarantee that we only use energy sources that do not contribute to climate change by the year 2050”— voters said they support it on balance (50% support / 46% oppose).
Progressive Policy Institute commissioned ALG Research to conduct this poll to assess the electoral landscape in Pennsylvania and understand voters’ attitudes towards energy policy and climate change. The survey consisted of N=500 likely 2020 general election voters in Pennsylvania, and it included an oversample in gas-producing counties which meant we interviewed 317 people in those counties. The overall margin of error is + 4.4% and in gas-producing counties is +5.5%.
