Voters Oppose Cuts to Solar Incentives

Reports that California regulators are looking at cutting the incentives offered for installing solar in homes have sparked vocal opposition. We decided to test broad public opinion on the subject among California voters in our latest statewide poll and found a large majority of voters oppose the move that would make installing rooftop solar much less cost-effective in the state.

Probolsky Research president Adam Probolsky talks about the poll finding:

It appears that California regulators are out of touch with the voters on this issue. We have conditioned the public to conserve energy and look for greener alternatives. Cutting incentives for solar does not jive with the narrative of going green.

Voters across the spectrum Democratic, No Party Preference, and Republican oppose these incentive cuts. In fact, in every way of looking at the data, by age, gender, preferred language, and geography, voters align in their opposition to cutting solar incentives.

Regulators have a big challenge on their hands. They will have to backtrack on their plans or mount a huge effort to educate the public on why they need to make changes.

Every demographic group opposes the cutting the incentives. The charts below illustrate

Our multi-mode poll was conducted by telephone with live U.S.-based interviewers and online via email and text message invitations in English and Spanish among 900 California voters from January 29 – February 3, 2022. The sample was developed from the voter file compiled by the fifty-eight California elections officials. We matched the demographics of California voters.

Interviews were conducted with live U.S.-based interviewers by phone (17%) and online survey methods (83%). Phone participants were interviewed through landline (36%) and mobile (64%) calls. Online participants were invited by email (50%) and text message (50%) to access the survey by computer, tablet, or smart phone. Respondents in all modes chose their preferred language, English (85%) and Spanish (15%).

A survey of this size yields a margin of error of +/-3.3% and a 95% confidence level. This survey question was not sponsored by a third party, the results are being released for public interest.

Probolsky Research is a non-partisan Latina- and woman-owned research firm with corporate, election, government, and non-profit clients. The firm has offices in Newport Beach, San Francisco and Washington DC.