American’s Energy Future: An Analysis of the Proposed Energy Policy Plans in Presidential Election

Ming-Hsun Cheng, Minliang Yang and Yu Wang
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Ming-Hsun Cheng: Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50010, USA
Minliang Yang: Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50010, USA
Yu Wang: Department of Political Science, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50010, USA

Energies, 2016, vol. 9, issue 12, 1-17

Abstract: As the leader of the largest economy, President of the United States has substantive influence on addressing climate change problems. However, a presidential election is often dominated by issues other than energy problems. This paper focuses on the 2016 presidential election, and examines the energy plans proposed by the leading Democrat and Republican candidates. Our data from the Iowa caucus survey in January 2016 suggests that voters were more concerned about terrorism and economic issues than environmental issues. We then compare the Democratic and Republican candidate’s view of America’s energy future, and evaluate their proposed renewable energy targets. We find that the view on renewable energy is polarized between Democratic and Republican candidates, while candidates from both parties agree on the need for energy efficiency. Results from our ordinal least squares regression models suggests that Democratic candidates have moderate to ambitious goals for developing solar and other renewables. The Republican candidates favor fossil fuels and they choose not to provide any specific target for developing renewable energy. In addition, this trend of party polarization has grown more significant when compared with the past three presidential elections. Our observation suggests that energy policies need to be discussed more often regarding the diversification and decarbonization of the nation’s energy system.

Keywords: president election; renewable energy; party polarization; energy future; public opinion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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