Floridians of both political parties are overwhelmingly concerned about the cost of energy in the state and Florida’s heavy reliance on natural gas as a source of electricity, according to a poll by a Republican strategy firm. It also found that environmental issues will factor into voters’ decisions in the 2024 election.
The poll was commissioned by the Environmental Defense Fund, which advocates for environmental causes including renewable energy. To conduct the poll, the group hired Spry Strategies, a Tennessee firm whose clients have included Gov. Ron DeSantis, U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna and the Republican Party of Florida, according to the company’s website.
The April poll of 463 likely general election voters in Florida found that 84% of respondents, including 83% of Republicans, are concerned about Florida’s cost of energy. Twice as many people said their electric bill is higher than last year compared to the portion who said it wasn’t, across all political parties.
When pollsters informed participants that two-thirds of Florida’s electricity comes from burning natural gas that’s largely piped in from out-of-state, 76% of those surveyed, including 67% of Republicans, said that was concerning. A vast majority said they would support further diversification of energy sources.
Ryan Burrell, president of Spry Strategies, said he was “pretty taken aback” by the findings.
“As a red state, Florida’s Republican base is more environmentally conscious than arguably any other red state in the country,” he wrote in a summary report, attributing that to the state’s abundant natural resources and reliance on tourism. “The survey results surprised me as a Republican pollster and conservative because of Floridians’ broad consciousness on issues outside of the scope of marine, water, and wildlife protection.”
One of the more unexpected answers came from a question about hurricane severity, Burrell said. The question was: “Are you concerned about the cost of increasing storm severity due to climate change, including higher property taxes and flood insurance rates?”
A majority of Republicans said “yes.” Typically when polling in red states, less than half of Republicans believe increased storm severity is caused by climate change, Burrell said.
The latest research suggests hurricanes are growing stronger in a warming world, and rapid intensification — when top wind speeds increase by 35 mph in a single day — is projected to happen more frequently with climate change. But nationwide, a minority of Republicans — 36% — say climate change is affecting their own community, according to a survey by Pew conducted last year.
“One thing it makes you want to do as a pollster is poll deeper into the issue,” Burrell said in an interview. “There’s no question this is a big enough surprise that it’s worth a deeper understanding.”
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Explore all your optionsDawn Shirreffs, the Florida Director of the Environmental Defense Fund, said her group hired a Republican firm because of the GOP’s supermajorities in the state Legislature.
“We really wanted to make sure we were providing information that would be viewed as credible to policymakers,” she said. Her group plans to disseminate the results of the survey to both lawmakers and state utility regulators, an effort that she said is particularly important on the heels of a new law, House Bill 1645.
Recently signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the law, which deleted the majority of mentions of climate change in state law and outlawed offshore wind turbines in state waters, also relaxed some regulations for natural gas pipelines and storage facilities. Florida’s reliance on this fuel source led to skyrocketing electric bills in recent years, as residents acutely felt the impact of historic spikes in the price of natural gas.
Shirreffs said she’s noticed an uptick in “misinformation” from the fossil fuel industry, including op-eds about that law, that Shirreffs said are aimed “to convince folks that fossil fuels should have continued dominance in Florida.”
National polling has found that while most Americans support expanding solar and wind energy, Republican support has dropped in recent years as partisan gaps are starting to form.
“I think there’s been a broad effort to politicize climate and the need for energy policy change,” Shirreffs said. Meanwhile, she’s heard from Floridians who took less than their prescribed amount of medications to save money when their electric bills were high. “We’re helping people understand this is not a theoretical issue. This is affecting their quality of life.”
Dale Calhoun, executive director of the Florida Natural Gas Association, said in an email that it’s other states whose energy policy have become politicized, causing “high prices and rolling blackouts.”
“Here in Florida, our diverse energy portfolio enables families and business to access safe, reliable and affordable power, and natural gas is an important part of that,” he said. “Especially as we head into hurricane season, Floridians turn to natural gas a reliable fuel source to support emergency response efforts, power generators, keep hospitals open and maintain A/C at nursing homes.”
As for the poll results, Shirreffs believes that Florida Republicans stand out because they’ve felt the effects of climate change firsthand, like hotter summers and more severe hurricanes.
“I think there’s a moment where people’s lived experience becomes more important than partisan talking points,” she said. “That moment seems to have arrived.”
