A Report from
National Surveys on Energy and Environment Issues in Energy and Environmental Policy
Number 33 | January 2018
Coal, Natural Gas, and Pipelines: 10 Years of Fossil Fuels in the NSEE Introduction Over the course of the last decade, the U.S. has seen a dramatic shift in the mix of fossil fuels it uses to generate electricity. Coal has fallen from making up roughly half (48%) of the electricity mix in 2008 to just 30% in 2016 (see Figure 1). Meanwhile, the share attributable to natural gas has risen from 21% to 34% in that same period. Analysts have attributed this shift to both policy and market forces.1 As a result, as the existing coal plants age, utilities are increasingly replacing them with other sources. In some states, renewable portfolio standards and the plummeting cost of renewable energy have allowed renewables to fill some of the gap created by these retiring coal plants. But more often, natural gas plants have been the primary substitute for aging coal, driven largely by record-low prices for gas as a result of a glut of cheap natural gas made possible through the shale gas revolution. While this shift from coal to natural gas has likely led to an overall reduction in the carbon emissions associated with the electricity sector, it has not been without controversy—over what will happen to the workers employed in the coal industry, over the means of extracting shale oil and gas (especially the process of hydraulic fracturing) and the methane that is often emitted in the process, and over the building of new pipelines to connect these new domestic oil and gas production sites to refineries and power plants. In this chapter, we look at how American attitudes about fossil fuels have changed over the last decade. We use time-series data to consider shifts in support for phasing out coal-fired power plants altogether and for so-called “clean coal,” as well as for increasing the use of natural gas for electricity. We also report for the first time on Americans’ willingness to leave fossil fuels in the ground in order to limit future emissions, and present American attitudes about large pipeline projects. We also recall earlier CLOSUP reporting on public attitudes toward hydraulic fracturing (or fracking), and recount past NSEE polling on support for specific Obama-era fossil fuel policies: setting a hard cap on coal-related emissions and creating an energy security trust fund.
Authors
NSEE @10 Since 2008, the University of Michigan and Muhlenberg
College
have
conducted
the
National Surveys on Energy and Environment (NSEE), a biannual national opinion survey on energy and climate policy. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the survey, throughout 2018 NSEE will be releasing a series of reports highlighting the breadth of topics we have covered over the past decade. These reports present time-series data on how American attitudes about energy policy and climate change have changed from 2008 to 2017, as well as comparisons to Canadian opinion, collected through a parallel survey conducted by researchers at the University of Montreal. Figure 1: U.S. electricity supply energy source, by year 50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0
2007
2008
Coal
2009
Natural gas
2010
2011
Nuclear
2012
2013
Hydro
2014
Other renewables
2015
2016
Other
Source: See Note 2
Sarah B. Mills • Natalie B. Fitzpatrick • Christopher Borick • Barry G. Rabe • Erick Lachapelle
University of Michigan