When actions meet attitudes: Public and solar-adopter preferences for clean transportation and energy policies
研究调查了美国新墨西哥州公众和屋顶太阳能采用者对清洁汽车规则与可再生能源组合标准等政策组合的支付意愿，发现太阳能采用者更支持可再生能源和清洁能源整合政策，且环境态度和政策信念影响支付意愿。
Policymakers across the United States continue to promote the electrification of transportation while expanding the share of renewable energy generation to decarbonize the power grid. Previous studies have typically examined these policy domains separately and often overlooked how citizens who have already made tangible clean-energy investments perceive such initiatives. Using New Mexico as a case study, this research fills that gap by jointly examining public and rooftop-solar owners' willingness to pay (WTP) for policy combinations that link the Clean Car Rule (CCR) and Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). The study is distinctive in surveying two complementary groups (a representative sample of 940 New Mexico residents and a second group of 438 rooftop solar adopters who installed systems after 2020) allowing us to compare stated policy preferences across groups distinguished by revealed environmental behavior. Employing conventional and hybrid mixed logit models estimated in WTP space, we account for both observed attributes and two latent attitudinal variables, environmental concern and policy support, identified through exploratory factor analysis. Results indicate that both groups express significant and positive WTP for electrifying the transportation sector and expanding clean energy generation, though solar adopters display higher support for renewable portfolios, rooftop solar carve-outs, and policies that promote clean-energy integration. Joint Wald tests and likelihood ratio tests confirm that these preference differences are statistically significant across samples. Individuals with stronger pro-environmental attitudes and favorable policy beliefs also exhibit higher WTP for clean transportation and energy attributes. These findings indicate the importance of incorporating revealed-behavior subgroups into stated-preference studies to better understand heterogeneity in public support for decarbonization. Policy implications include the value of pursuing balanced state-level portfolios that align renewable deployment with electric-vehicle policy ambitions. • First DCE jointly assessing WTP for Clean Car Rule (CCR), Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) targets, and job creation. • EFA-based HMXL with two latent variables reveals distinct attitudinal WTP pathways. • Solar adopters have significantly higher WTP for CCR, solar, and renewable targets. • Environmental concern raises WTP for renewables; policy support raises WTP for BEVs. • Respondents prefer tax credits over free charging and favor balanced energy mixes.