An Affinity-to-Commons Model of Public Support For Environmental Energy Policy

As atmospheric CO₂ continues to rise above 450 PPM, policymakers struggle with uncertainty concerning predictors of citizen support for environmental energy policies (EEPs) and preferences for their design, topics which have received limited attention in empirical literature. We present an original model of policy support based on citizens' affinity-to-commons: pathways by which individuals enjoy natural public goods that in turn shape preferences between alternative policy mechanisms. We evaluate this model using a survey of southern California electricity customers, with results indicating the model's utility in predicting public support of EEP. Stronger community ties are associated with preferences for "pull"-type subsidies, whereas stronger connections to natural commons are linked to support for both "pull" and "push"-type sanctions. Findings have implications for coalition building as advocates may engender support for green energy policy by framing sanctions as protecting natural commons, and framing subsidies either in this same way and/or as producing benefits for communities. - Highlights: • A commons-oriented model of citizen support for environmental energy policy is proposed (Thaler (2012)). • A factor analysis identifies local tax shifts, green subsidies, and energy taxes (Schultz et al. (1995)). • Community connections predict support for policies with employing subsidies (Sabatier (2006)). • Connection to nature predicts support for policies using both sanctions and subsidies. (Stern et al. (1999)).