Blame over blackouts: Correcting partisan misinformation regarding renewable energy in the United States

Misinformation about renewable energy has become increasingly common in the United States. In recent years, fossil fuel interest groups and prominent Republican politicians have promoted and amplified inaccurate statements about the effectiveness and reliability of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, particularly after power grid failures. We examine how different sources of corrective information may correct such misinformation from Republican elites who blame renewables for power grid failures. We test this within an original survey experiment on a sample of over 1200 adult respondents in the United States, in which respondents received a misinformation statement from Republicans that blamed renewables for a power grid failure in Texas in 2021, followed by corrective information randomly attributed to either Republican politicians, Democratic politicians, a bipartisan consensus, or a non-partisan expert consensus as the source of correction. We find that co-partisan corrections coming from other Republicans significantly increase perceptions of renewables' reliability and preferences for the share of renewables in the energy mix. Our results have meaningful implications for communication strategies to correct misinformation about renewable energy within the United States, and also speak to methods to better increase and sustain public support for renewable energy development in different communities.