This week Due Data turns to energy — and the last three weeks have produced a body of data that demands its own edition. Utility bills are Americans' top kitchen-table concern. Gas prices are spiking alongside the Iran conflict. And data centers are losing the public relations battle before it's really even started.
Let's dig in.
Two-Thirds of America Is Sweating the Electric Bill
Consumer Reports found that two-thirds of Americans say energy costs are straining their finances — and 23% say they're strained "a lot." A supermajority, and one that cuts across every demographic.
The political salience is even sharper. Impact Research finds 84% of battleground voters say utility costs have increased over the past year — the single highest category of any expense they tested. Utilities have a net favorability of -38 in battleground districts. For context, that's worse than Congress.
And 49% of those battleground voters blame data centers, AI, and cryptocurrency for rising costs. More on that in a minute.
From Boston to Baton Rouge
The national numbers are bad. The state-level data is worse — and more personal.
In Massachusetts, a Suffolk University poll for the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce found that electric and heating bills have surpassed healthcare, groceries, and housing as residents' #1 household cost concern. Massachusetts has the fifth-highest electricity prices in the country, and the poll's sponsors said they were "shocked" that utility bills topped housing in one of America's most expensive real estate markets.
In New York, an AARP survey of residents over 50 found 84% report rising utility bills and 88% are concerned about further increases. But here's what makes this one sting: 56% have kept their homes at uncomfortable temperatures to save money. 49% have cut grocery spending. 17% have reduced spending on medical care. When energy costs force seniors to choose between heat and healthcare, that's a policy failure — but also a clear signal of where intervention would have the most impact. 93% of older New Yorkers want officials to prioritize energy affordability, and 65% say they'd support candidates who commit to lowering rates. The constituency for action is already built.
In Louisiana, two polls from the Pelican Institute found roughly 67% of voters report utility bill increases, with about 80% blaming state government and the Public Service Commission. Louisiana voters aren't blaming the market — they're blaming their regulators.
When utility bills beat housing in Massachusetts, healthcare in New York, and trigger a blame-the-regulators backlash in Louisiana — all in the same three-week window — you're looking at a national story.
This syncs with what Data for Progress found nationally: 61% of Americans say cracking down on utility "price gouging" is the best way to lower energy costs, compared to just 35% who favor building more infrastructure.
I want to add some personal context here. I've run a lot of focus groups on energy costs, and the "price gouging" framing is real — but it's largely reflexive anger about having no choice of utility provider. It's a lashing out. When you probe even a little past the initial frustration, people quickly pivot to "repair and build." They want action, not just punishment.
A Public Opinion Strategies survey for Americans for Prosperity captures the other side: 85% of voters say modernizing energy regulations would be impactful, and 76% find it believable as a solution. But be careful what you wish for — I've surveyed voters in deregulated states like Ohio, and they aren't entirely happy with that system either.
Gas Prices Are About to Eat the News Cycle
The Iran conflict is reshaping energy anxiety in real time, and the speed of the shift is remarkable.
Data for Progress tracks gas price perceptions across a rolling series of surveys, and the latest shows a 23-point spike in voters reporting higher prices. A step function, not a drift.
Quinnipiac adds the anxiety dimension: 74% of voters are concerned the Iran conflict will raise oil and gas prices, with 49% saying they're "very concerned." The partisan gap is wide — 93% of Democrats versus 52% of Republicans — but even a majority of Republicans are worried.
Reuters/Ipsos finds 67% expect gas prices to keep getting worse, and 49% say the conflict is already hurting their personal finances.
This is global, too. Barclays finds rising fuel costs are the #1 consumer concern linked to the Middle East conflict at 82%, with energy bills a near-identical second at 81%. Global consumer confidence fell to just 22% — the lowest reading of early 2026.
I suspect we're about to watch three measures move in tandem: public concern about the Iran war, gas price perceptions, and presidential job approval. That tripwire has historically been one of the most potent forces in American politics. Expect a lot more data on this as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz stalls.
Data Centers: More People Know. Fewer People Like Them.
Data centers are losing the public narrative — badly. And the more people learn, the worse it gets.
Pew Research (n=8,512) delivers the headline numbers: only 4% of Americans say data centers are "mostly good" for the environment. 39% say mostly bad. On energy costs: 6% good, 38% bad. On quality of life for nearby residents: 6% good, 30% bad.
Here's the trend I keep flagging: familiarity makes it worse. Roughly two-thirds of Americans who've heard "a lot" about data centers say they're bad for energy prices, versus 42% among those who know only "a little." Younger adults are the most negative — 54% of those under 30 say data centers are bad for the environment, compared to 26% of those 65+.
Marquette Law School shows the trend accelerating at the state level: in Wisconsin, 70% now say data center costs outweigh benefits — up from 55% just five months ago. That's a 15-point swing driven largely by Democrats (+29 points) and independents (+21 points), reflecting the broader partisan sorting of the AI debate.
Data centers power the streaming, search, and cloud services Americans love. But nobody's making that case yet. The industry is letting "data center = higher bills + environmental damage" become the default narrative — and defaults are hard to reverse.
I'd love to see a poll that distinguishes between data center use for streaming and web services versus AI and crypto mining. I suspect the public would react very differently. The good news for the industry: the problem is messaging, not fundamentals. Americans aren't anti-data-center — they're anti-higher-bills. Companies that lead with local investment, grid upgrades, and clean energy commitments have an opening. But the window is closing fast.
Three Weeks of Shorter Stories
🔌 A third of voters don't trust the power grid. OH Predictive Insights (n=2,659) finds 37% of registered voters distrust the grid, with an interesting partisan split: 66% of Republicans trust it versus just 45% of Democrats. True independents are the most skeptical at 34%. I suspect this is geographic more than ideological — rural reliability versus urban infrastructure anxiety. Either way, our grid is geriatric and generally unprepared for what's coming in data center buildouts and increased electrification.
🌊 Half of flood-zone residents have never talked about it. An international survey across the Netherlands, UK, and US found roughly 50% of coastal residents in flood-vulnerable areas have never had a single conversation about flood risk with anyone. Not neighbors, not local officials, not even family. Only 14% have discussed it with neighbors. Personal flood experience is what drives engagement — which is exactly backwards from where we need to be.
🌲 You say environmentalist. Wyoming says conservationist. A Colorado College poll of Rocky Mountain West voters found 95% of Wyoming respondents call themselves "conservationists" — in the most politically conservative state in the survey. 61% prefer leaders prioritize protecting water, air, wildlife habitat, and recreation over maximizing land for drilling and mining. And 73% say removing Clean Water Act protections from streams and wetlands will have a negative impact. In the Mountain West, conservation is a cultural identity that cuts right across party lines.
Coming Weeks
- Gas prices and presidential approval — watch for the three-variable dance I mentioned above. If gas price perceptions keep climbing at this rate, job approval numbers will follow. This correlation is almost mechanical.
- Data center backlash goes local — the Wisconsin trend (+15 points in 5 months) suggests state-level opposition is moving fast. Watch for moratorium proposals and local ballot measures.
- Utility costs as a 2026 campaign issue — with 61% wanting "price gouging" crackdowns and 85% backing regulatory modernization, energy affordability is ripe for midterm messaging. The candidate who owns this issue first in battleground districts has an opening.
- Strait of Hormuz — if shipping disruptions intensify, energy cost anxiety compounds with existing utility frustration. Two separate pressure points hitting the same nerve.
What Else We Tracked
Not everything made the cut above, but Poll Vault discovered all of these over the past three weeks:
- Battleground Voters Blame GOP Tariffs and Tax Cuts for Rising Costs — Navigator Research
- Montana Voters Blame Feds and Fossil Fuel Industry for Climate Change — MTFP-Eagleton
- 57% of Americans Worried About How Much Energy AI Consumes — Shift Browser
- Three in Four Adults Fear AI Data Centers Will Raise Their Energy Bills — SambaNova
- 63% Believe Climate Change Caused by Human Activity — YouGov/The Economist
- Trump, Landry Approval Ratings Slide as Cost of Living Anxiety Surges in Louisiana — Pelican Institute
This edition, Poll Vault tracked 22 energy and climate polls — see them all →
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