Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton might find it hard to appeal to voters on energy policy in a general election after sliding to the Left to contend with Sen. Bernie Sanders, pollsters said Tuesday.
At the “Energy and the Election: Voters Opinion on Energy” forum Tuesday morning, the American Petroleum Institute released the results of a poll of 2,800 voters showing vast bipartisan agreement on energy policy. Among the findings were that 64 percent of Democrats and 85 percent of Republicans say they are more likely to support a candidate who supports producing more oil and natural gas.
Clinton, the former secretary of state, has slowly shifted to the Left on energy policy during the primary campaign. She has announced that she’s against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline and has called for a Department of Justice investigation into ExxonMobil over accusations the company hid knowledge in the 1970s and ’80s that burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change.
That could hurt her in the general election, pollsters said.
“Right now, her main focus is don’t let me lose the nomination to a challenge from the Left,” said Glenn Bolger, partner and co-founder of Public Opinion Strategies, “… so she’s doing everything she can to get to the Left and it will be much harder for her to get back to where Americans are on energy.”
Much of the reason for Clinton’s leftward movement on energy policy is due to a strong challenge from Sanders, who is running second in the polls for the Democratic nomination.
Sanders has made climate change one of the central themes of his campaigns, and that has resonated with the more liberal wing of the Democratic party. Those are the people who are cutting checks and helping elect candidates, but they don’t necessarily reflect the beliefs of most Democrats, said Keith Frederick, co-founder of Frederick Polls.
Frederick said there’s a lot of common ground between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to energy policy, though that might not be reflected in the halls of government. Even if they want to see greener forms of energy, many Democratic voters still recognize something needs to keep their lights on, he said.
“Americans are very pragmatic when it comes to energy,” he said.
Among other findings in the American Petroleum Institute poll were that 83 percent of Democrats, 85 percent of independents and 95 percent of Republicans want more domestic natural gas production to create jobs.
The panelists agreed that one of the major roadblocks to bipartisan work on energy policy in the Capitol is simply the political process of demonizing opponents.
Nathan Gonzales, editor and publisher of the Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report, said Republicans and Democrats have defaulted to insulting their opponents, which has made it harder to work together.
There are signs of bipartisanship in Congress, such as the work done in the House Energy and Commerce Committee on an energy reform bill, but for the most part the process has become petty, he said.
“I’m not sure we’re going to see, from the parties, that positive message,” Gonzales said about the bipartisan findings in the poll. “It’s people against something rather than people for something, from the party perspective.”
The poll was done between Oct. 15 and Oct. 25 and has a margin error of 2 percent.
