{"id":350356,"date":"2024-11-06T17:03:33","date_gmt":"2024-11-06T16:03:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=350356"},"modified":"2024-11-06T17:03:35","modified_gmt":"2024-11-06T16:03:35","slug":"fossil-fuel-political-backfire-aeis-teixeira-explains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=350356","title":{"rendered":"Fossil Fuel Political Backfire (AEI\u2019s Teixeira explains)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Master Resource<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Robert Bradley Jr.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his Free Press<\/em><\/a> article \u201cHow Progressives Blew It<\/a>,\u201d Ruy Teixeira<\/a> of the American Enterprise Institute<\/a>, explained how the anti-fossil-fuel narrative of the Left backfired<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTelling people fossil fuels are evil and they must stop using them was a terrible idea, and voters hate it,\u201d he began. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Since the days of Barack Obama and an \u201call of the above\u201d approach to energy production, progressives have embraced a radical approach to energy issues. They promulgated the view that climate change is not gradually advancing, but is already a crisis evident in extreme weather events. It threatens the existence of the planet without immediate, drastic action. That action must include the immediate replacement of fossil fuels by renewables, which are cheap and can be introduced right now with sufficient resources. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Teixeira explained:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

According to the progressive view, people resist rapidly eliminating fossil fuels only because of propaganda from the fossil fuel industry. Potential problems with renewables, such as their intermittency, are being solved, they argue. This means that as we use more renewables and cut out fossil fuels, political support for the transition to clean energy should rise because of the benefits to consumers, who will have cheaper energy costs, and to workers, who will have high-paying clean energy jobs.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

False assumptions and snobbery have not impressed the electorate, the opposite being the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

This is the gospel for progressives who see themselves as noble warriors against the impending apocalypse. But most voters, especially working-class voters, have not signed up for\u2014or are even much interested in\u2014the rapid green transition they envision.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Too much, too fast\u2013but Teixeira falls into the every-energy-in-the-stew approach, a governmental one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Workers far prefer a gradual \u201call-of-the-above\u201d approach to transitioning the energy system over the frantic push for renewables that characterizes progressives\u2019 Green New Deal\u2013type thinking. In our Politics Without Winners<\/a><\/em> survey, we asked respondents whether they thought the country\u2019s energy supply should \u201cuse a mix of energy sources including oil, coal, and natural gas along with renewable energy sources,\u201d or \u201cphase out the use of oil, coal, and natural gas completely, relying instead on renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power only.\u201d An overwhelming 72 percent in the survey favored the all-of-the-above approach, while just 26 percent backed the rapid renewables transition. Views were even more lopsided among working-class voters.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

He continues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The hard fact is that progressives\u2019 hostility to fossil fuels is not widely shared by ordinary voters. In a recent result from a New York Times<\/a><\/em>\/Siena College poll<\/a>, two-thirds of likely voters said they supported a policy of \u201cincreasing domestic production of fossil fuels such as oil and gas.\u201d  Two-thirds!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Home-grown exportable energy, what Trump calls \u2018liquid gold\u2019, has voter standing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

A new NBC poll<\/a> tested a wide range of policy proposals to see whether voters would be more or less likely to support a candidate who espoused them. The single most positive response among voters was to a proposal to expand domestic oil and natural gas production. By a very wide 67 to 15 percent margin, voters said they would be more likely to support a candidate who wanted to expand fossil fuel production.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVoters clearly aren\u2019t buying what progressives are selling on energy and climate,\u201d Ruy Teixeira concludes. \u201cNot even close. And that\u2019s another big reason the progressive moment has come to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are left with Kamala Harris \u201cfuriously backpedaling from all these [anti-energy] positions,\u201d but change takes time. Energy exceptionalism led by oil, gas, and coal is getting back in the saddle, even politically correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his Free Press article \u201cHow Progressives Blew It,\u201d Ruy Teixeira of the American Enterprise Institute, explained how the anti-fossil-fuel narrative of the Left backfired.<\/p>\n

\u201cTelling people fossil fuels are evil and they must stop using them was a terrible idea, and voters hate it,\u201d he began. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":350359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691831353,691818228,691818849,691831354],"class_list":{"0":"post-350356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-anti-energy-positions","9":"tag-fossil-fuels","10":"tag-green-new-deal","11":"tag-ruy-teixeira","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/0fossilfuelsu.jpg?fit=1920%2C1249&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1t8U","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":388141,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=388141","url_meta":{"origin":350356,"position":0},"title":"Energy Policy vs. Climate Dogma: Why the Voters Aren\u2019t Marching to the Green Revolution\u2019s Tune","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"11\/07\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"his analysis draws on the recent survey research conducted and published by Roger Pielke Jr. and Ruy Teixeira in their report, The Science vs. the Narrative vs. the Voters: Clarifying the Public Debate Around Energy and Climate, released through the American Enterprise Institute. 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