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Reducing CO2 emissions from the electricity sector will likely require policies that encourage the widespread deployment of a diverse mix of low-carbon electricity generation technologies. Public discourse informs such policies. To make informed decisions and to productively engage in public discourse, citizens need to understand the trade-offs between electricity technologies proposed for widespread deployment. Building on previous paper-and-pencil studies, we developed a computer tool that aimed to help nonexperts make informed decisions about the challenges faced in achieving a low-carbon energy future. We report on an initial usability study of this interactive computer tool. After providing participants with comparative and balanced information about 10 electricity technologies, we asked them to design a low-carbon electricity portfolio. Participants used the interactive computer tool, which constrained portfolio designs to be realistic and yield low CO2 emissions. As they changed their portfolios, the tool updated information about projected CO2 emissions, electricity costs, and specific environmental impacts. As in the previous paper-and-pencil studies, most participants designed diverse portfolios that included energy efficiency, nuclear, coal with carbon capture and sequestration, natural gas, and wind. Our results suggest that participants understood the tool and used it consistently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Military base closures have left 600,000 acres of U.S. land contaminated with unexploded ordnance (UXO). Recent research has demonstrated a method for quantifying the probability of residual UXO harming future land users. Here, we explore how a community neighboring a closed, UXO-contaminated military base responds to the probabilistic risk information this method produces. We explore how probabilistic information affects their risk understanding, risk management preferences, risk perceptions, and worry. We test eight different communication formats employing varying combinations of textual risk descriptions, comparative risk information, stacked bar graphs illustrating the proportion of future land users at risk, and textual summaries and/or graphical histograms presenting uncertainty. We find that stacked bar graphs double the odds of correctly reporting the probability of harm and decrease the perceived risk, compared to textual descriptions. Providing histograms or summary uncertainty information decreases the odds of correctly reporting the probability of harm by about one-half, compared to communications without uncertainty information. We also find that risk communication formats do not alter risk management preferences. We recommend that as EPA reevaluates its UXO risk management policies in the coming year, the agency shift to quantitative rather than its current qualitative approach to assessing and communicating UXO risks [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]