The Western United States has made significant contributions to agricultural products both domestically and internationally. As the Western U.S. continues to grapple with water scarcity and extended periods of drought, evidence of misalignment between crop production and the volume of water necessary to maintain abundant food yields is becoming more pronounced. There are several policy nudges and mitigation strategies that can be employed to bring water availability and crop selection into alignment. Whether there is public support for these policies, or knowledge of how policies could impact water use in agriculture, it is important to understand what those preferences are and how people weigh tradeoffs between developing agricultural and water use. Using random household surveys of residents in the western U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and California, this study explores public water knowledge, the correlates of public water knowledge, and the impact knowledge has on preferred water policies while controlling for demographic characteristics, environmental efficacy, climate change belief, and political ideology. Findings show that knowledge does have an independent impact on preferred approaches to water policies while controlling for demographic characteristics, environmental efficacy, belief in climate change, and political ideology. Respondents who are knowledgeable about water recycling for food and water use for agriculture were significantly more supportive of water conservation policy approaches and less supportive of water supply-side approaches.

Background: Recent push for ‘energy democracy’ necessitates a well-informed citizenry vis-à-vis energy policy, especially in the wake of ideologically charged and divergent views about the existence and severity of climate change among American citizens. Citizens’ involvement in energy policy processes in democratic countries makes it important to assess the depth and scope of energy policy awareness and knowledge among the public, as well as to consider the factors that promote or hinder how informed people are about energy policy issues. Objectives: This study aims at examining the levels of public informedness and knowledge of energy policy and analyzing their potential correlates in the western U.S. states of California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. The study also analyzes the impact of public awareness and knowledge on public support for government funding for renewable energy technology research. Methods: Using survey data of 1804 randomly selected respondents from California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, the study employs ordinal logistic regression to trans-situational and situational models predicting self-assessed informedness and objective measure of knowledge about energy policy as well as public support for federal funding for renewable energy technology research. Results: The study found that variables related to socio-economic status (SES) are stronger predictors of public informedness and knowledge about energy policy than situational variables like values and efficacy, except for climate change beliefs that have a positive relationship with informedness and knowledge. Conclusion: The study also found that informedness and knowledge of energy policy are positively associated with support for government funding for renewable energy research.

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of energy efficiency as the ‘first fuel,’ seen as one of the most promising approaches for achieving climate change mitigation goals and enhancing energy security without compromising economic well‐being. However, meeting the standards of the IEA Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario demands a more thorough exploitation of economically viable energy efficiency potentials. The United States has a huge energy efficiency potential to cost‐effectively reduce its electricity use, but utilizing this potential requires proactive policymaking. Recent studies suggest that state policymaking increasingly responds to mass policy preferences, gradually shaping policy changes despite existing barriers. This underscores the importance of investigating public energy preferences. Given that energy preferences of the US citizens are significantly polarized due to ideological and identity‐driven beliefs about the existence and severity of climate change, understanding these preferences becomes even more vital. While there is plenty of literature on the merits and challenges of energy efficiency as well as on public preferences for various energy policies, there remains a noticeable research gap in the understanding of the public's specific preferences for energy efficiency policies especially in the American West. This study addresses this gap through a survey of 1804 randomly selected respondents across California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. It broadens the scope beyond political ideology to explore how environmental values, social identities, and policy literacy are associated with public support for energy efficiency policies in building and agricultural sectors.