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How do people envision the future energy system in the United States with respect to using fossil fuels, renewable energy, and nuclear energy? Are there shared policy pathways of achieving a decarbonized energy system? Here, we present results of an online survey (n= 2,429) designed to understand public perceptions of the current and future energy mixes in the United States (i.e., energy sources used for electric power, transportation, industrial, commercial, and residential sectors). We investigate support for decarbonization policies and antidecarbonization policies and the relative importance of climate change as an issue. Surprisingly, we find bipartisan support for a decarbonized energy future. Although there is a shared vision for decarbonization, there are strong partisan differences regarding the policy pathways for getting there. On average, our participants think that climate change is not the most important problem facing the United States today, but they do view climate change as an important issue for the world today and for the United States and the world in the future. 

Despite constantly using energy and having extensive interactions with household appliances, people consistently mis-estimate the amount of energy that is used by home appliances. This poses major problems for conservation efforts, while also presenting an interesting case study in human perception. Since many forms of energy used are not directly perceptible, and since the amount of energy that is being used by an appliance is often difficult to infer from appearances alone, people often rely on cues. Some of these cues are more reliable than others and previous literature has investigated which of these cues people rely on. However, past literature has always studied these proximal cues in isolation— despite the fact that, during real-world perception, people are always integrating a variety of cues. Here, we investigate how people rely on a variety of cues, and how individual differences in the reliance on those cues predicts the ability to estimate home energy use.