Exploration of

attitudes towards
energy
  While energy policies were largely eclipsed in the last election,
there has traditionally been an assumed viewpoint that political
Overview affiliation predicts opinion on energy sources and consumption.
 The population was mostly people over the age of 25, with more
than half of the respondents being over the age of 35.
 The sampling employed was convenience, so the generalizability
of results is limited.
  This evaluation was aimed at looking for correlation between
participants’ political views and ideas about energy consumption
in the US.
Research  Specifically, is it possible to determine a person’s views on energy
Question consumption and energy sources, based on the presidential
candidate they voted for in 2016.
Mechanics
 Variables Instrument Item
Age What is your current age? (multiple choice options)
Education What is your highest level of education? (multiple
choice options)
Political Affiliation How did you vote? (multiple choice options)
Energy Awareness Rate energy consumption (1-5 scaled response
Variables options)
Energy Outlook Which energy source do you feel is most vital to the
U.S. for immediate and future needs? (multiple
choice options)
Energy and Voting Did the energy policies laid out by the candidates in
the 2016 affect your vote? (1-5 scaled response
options)
  26 Responses received, from a varied range of ages

Responses
 Respondent Voting - 2016 Presidential Election

Did not vote

36%
Democrat
44%

Republican
20%

Responses Actual Illinois Voter Statistics - 2016 Presidential Election

Did not vote

28%

Democrat
40%
Independent
1%

Green
1%

Libertarian
3%
Republican
27%

Source: http://www.cookcountyclerk.com/elections/electiondata/Documents/PostElectionReport_110816.pdf
Data Analysis
 Clustered Bar Chart of Energy Sources by Political Affiliation
7

6
6

5
5

Energy sources 4 Coal

# of votes
Favored By 3
Natural Gas
Oil
Solar

Political 2
2 2 2
Wind

Affiliation 1
1 1 1 1 1 1

0 0 0 0
0
Democrat Did not vote Republican
Political Affiliation

From this chart we can infer that stereotypical views about energy hold true to a degree –
democrats overwhelmingly chose solar energy, while republicans favored coal
 Effect of Energy Policy on Voting by Political Affiliation
8

7
7

Political 5

# of agreement
4 Democrat

affiliation 3
4
Did not vote
Republican
3

swayed by 2
2 2 2 2

policy 1

0 0 0 0
1
0
1
0
0
Strongly Considerably Marginally Slightly Not at all
Degree of Affectation

From this chart we can see that, while none of the groups found strong merit in the candidates’
energy policies, the policies held more sway for Democrats. Unsurprisingly, the did note vote
group had the strongest representation of no effect on voting.
 How would you rate the amount of attention you give to you and your
family's energy consumption?
1- None at All, 5 – Strict Attention
Mean 2.65
Standard Error 0.22
Median 3.00
Mode 3.00
Standard Deviation 1.13
Table of Sample Variance 1.28
Kurtosis -1.25
descriptive Skewness -0.33

statistics Range
Minimum
3.00
1.00
Maximum 4.00
Sum 69.00
Count 26.00
Confidence Level(95.0%) 0.46

Upper bound 3.11

Lower Bound 2.20
 Null hypothesis: There is no political difference in attention to energy
consumption in the population

The mean political difference in our sample was 2.8 − 2.6 = 0.2
t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Equal Variances

Variable 1 Variable 2
Mean 2.8 2.6
Variance 1.2 2.3

Test of
Observations 11.0 5
Pooled Variance 1.5
Hypothesized Mean Difference 0.0

inference df
t Stat
14.0
0.3
P(T<=t) one-tail 0.4
t Critical one-tail 1.8
P(T<=t) two-tail 0.7
t Critical two-tail 2.1

The p value was higher than 0.05, so we accept the null hypothesis, therefore there
is no appreciable difference in concern for energy consumption between the
political parties
Conclusion
 While the results do show some correlation between political
voting and types of energy favored, it also shows that there is no
evidence that one group feels more strongly about energy usage.
 The instrument can be found here:
https://goo.gl/forms/ts7RCsTEYB8cEmPy2