Black Voters Link Climate Action to Energy Costs and Community Benefits

For many Black voters, climate action is tied to a practical question: will it make daily life more affordable and healthier? A seven-state survey found that 74 percent ranked the cost of living among their top three concerns, while 9 percent did the same for climate change. Yet 82 percent said they wanted candidates to prioritize addressing climate change. The gap points to a test of credibility: people want action, and they want to see it improve conditions in their communities.

The survey was conducted by HIT Strategies for the Climate Equity Action Fund and the League of Conservation Voters. It included 2,000 Black and Latino registered voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Across both groups, 89 percent said lowering energy costs should be a priority, 86 percent named reducing air and water pollution, and 82 percent named climate change.

Those results suggest that climate concerns become more immediate when framed through electricity bills, drinking water, pollution and extreme weather. Erica Tebbs, a senior analyst at HIT Strategies, said the central issue is whether people believe their concerns will lead to a tangible response in their communities. For voters who have seen promises fall short, a stated commitment may not be enough to establish trust.

Everyday costs shape climate priorities

Elijah Lee’s experience helps explain why the connection matters. He grew up in a predominantly Black, low-income community in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, next to a paper mill that polluted the air. He wondered why a mill seemed to be one of the few employment options available locally. Now 18 and a first-year college student, Lee lives in Virginia, where data center construction is expanding. He worries that the promised economic gains may not reach his generation.

Lee considers climate policy a major concern, but he understands why people facing high grocery and household bills may put it further down their list. “It’s hard to care about the quality of your air or your food that you eat and whether or not that food is actually clean when you can’t even afford the food in the first place,” he said.

For Lee, protecting the environment means addressing the conditions people live with now as well as the future they will inherit. “Young people today want to ensure we have a future where we can live prosperously,” he said. “We understand that the future requires environmental protections. But we also understand that it is not being prioritized today.”

Bill Hairston, national field director for the League of Conservation Voters, said data center development is bringing more residents into conversations about energy and the environment. Their questions include what new facilities could mean for power bills, air pollution and housing costs, including displacement as communities change. In his view, the concerns are connected: people are trying to understand who benefits from development and who carries its costs.

Hairston grew up in Charleston, West Virginia, in a poor Black neighborhood where coal trucks passed his grandparents’ home. He recalls the grass around it turning yellow and collecting soot. “I never saw my grandmother’s grass green,” he said. As an adult, he sees those childhood conditions as part of a wider discussion about health, affordability and the decisions that shape neighborhoods.

Data centers raise questions about who pays

The survey found skepticism about whether data center projects will protect household budgets. Respondents were told about a proposal requiring companies that build data centers to pay for the electricity they use, rather than passing those costs to consumers. Even after hearing about that safeguard, 52 percent of Black respondents expected data centers to increase electricity costs for everyday Americans. The proposal described in the survey addresses a basic concern: whether the cost of powering expanding facilities could show up in customers’ bills.

Tebbs said the result reflects doubts that such protections will work in practice. Lee raises related questions about tax breaks offered to data center developers and the employment claims used to promote projects. He now lives in an area described as the U.S. center of data center growth, and is unconvinced that the facilities will create jobs on the scale promised. “I understand the importance of wanting to bring money into Virginia,” he said. But describing data centers as “mass sources of employment,” he added, “is just not true.”

Andrea Cristina Mercado, who leads the Climate Equity Action Fund, said climate efforts need to address working people’s economic needs. She sees affordability concerns as a source of growing community opposition to data center expansion. For residents weighing a project, potential jobs and local revenue matter, but so do electricity prices and the effects on nearby neighborhoods.

Support crosses party lines, alongside doubts

Support for climate action extended across party identification among Black respondents. Seventy-nine percent of Black Republicans said it was important for candidates to prioritize climate change, compared with 59 percent of Latino Republicans. Hairston links that support to lived experience, including greater exposure to pollution and climate-related hazards such as flooding.

At the same time, many respondents questioned whether ordinary people can influence the outcome. Nearly half said wealthy corporations and other powerful interests would block meaningful efforts to reduce climate harm regardless of what individuals did. The same share also believed it was already too late to reduce that harm. Still, 45 percent of Black respondents said people acting together through civic participation, petitions and boycotts could hold powerful institutions accountable and reduce climate impacts.

Tebbs said doubts about whether participation can bring results weigh especially heavily on younger people. Lee sees signs of agency in students organizing for a voice in decisions about their communities. He pointed to high school students in Spartanburg, South Carolina, speaking out against a proposed data center. He wants older adults to take their concerns seriously rather than assume that young people raised with technology will welcome every facility built to support it.

The survey’s findings place affordability and environmental protection side by side. Cleaner air, safe water and lower energy costs are related priorities for many respondents, while skepticism about promised benefits remains a barrier to trust. Lee’s hope rests on making those connections visible and giving young people a role in shaping what comes next: “I’m being driven by deep concerns, but also by a deep hope that we can turn this around.”

Related coverage: Climate grants intended for Black communities — Adam Mahoney, Capital B

Related coverage: Electricity bills by region — Naveena Sadasivam and Clayton Aldern

Related coverage: Data center power demand and clean air protections — Emily Jones

Originally published by Grist on October 24, 2026. Read the source story.