So much WINNING! Let’s do it again by telling Gov. Walz what we think in this survey

Our supporters are absolutely crushing the Walz administration’s survey on the California fuel standards and electric vehicle adoption. Now that we’ve conquered one survey, it’s time to move on to another one. Remember, feedback closes TODAY.

But first, a victory lap.

The graph below shows how much winning our supporters are doing on the transportation survey. On Wednesday, more survey respondents said that the Walz administration’s goals didn’t go far enough than any other response. But now, after we emailed our dedicated supporters, there are nearly six times more respondents who say these measures go too far.

We broke the y-axis of the graph.

Now, it’s time to move on to the next survey.

The Walz administration is actually running six different surveys at the moment. We initially chose to engage our supporters on the transportation survey, but now it’s time to share our views on their clean energy and energy efficiency survey with the administration. I’ve shared my answers below.

CLICK HERE to take the survey.

Question 1 asks for your zip code.

Question 2 asks you to pick the most important actions Minnesotans can take on climate.

Question 3 asks you to state whether you think certain policies go too far, are about right, or don’t go far enough.

The question about increasing the amount of electricity we generate from carbon-free resources to 100 percent by 2040 was a no-brainer. The Walz administration has said they don’t think legalizing new nuclear power plants needs to be part of this strategy, which means this policy will be enormously expensive and make blackouts more likely by focusing on unreliable energy sources like wind and solar.

However, the question about weatherization gave me pause. We should absolutely be looking for cost-effective ways to reduce our energy consumption because that is a win-win for Minnesota families and the environment. However, academic research shows that these programs don’t pencil out.

A study from the University of Chicago found that the costs of the energy efficiency investments were about double households’ energy savings. Even when accounting for the broader societal benefits of energy efficiency investments, the costs still substantially outweigh the benefits. The average annual rate of return is -9.5 percent when judged from society’s perspective, the study concluded.

Arbitrarily increasing the number of homes receiving these updates will simply cost more than it is worth.

Question 4 asks respondents to rank their choices of policies. This is the part of the survey that shows the administration doesn’t really care about the people who think these policies are expensive and ineffective. If they did want a balanced perspective, these options would all be “goes too far, is about right, and doesn’t go far enough.”

Question five allows you to give your own feedback.

Remember, today is the last day to submit your feedback. Let’s win another one!