Returning From the Point of No Return: Approval of Nuclear Power as a Means to Mitigate Climate Change

Nuclear energy has significant potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat global warming. Despite its promising nature and Democrats’ strong support for other clean energy initiatives, Democratic partisans are likely to disapprove of nuclear power. Therefore, this paper investigates whether elite cue-giving can increase Democratic support for nuclear energy. Specifically, because Democrats tend to trust the scientific community, I hypothesize that those exposed to information regarding nuclear energy from a trusted expert in the field will experience an increase in support for the power source.  In this paper, I first review relevant literature and develop a theory to support why elite cues should affect climate change preferences and the mechanisms through which they operate. Then, I outline my research design that introduces the survey measures and experiment that I use to test my hypotheses. After presenting the results, I conclude by summarizing the paper’s main arguments and findings.