By Josh Nelson, Director of Online Communications and New Media
Proponents of our status quo energy policy would have you believe that Americans are in disagreement about the need for investments in renewable energy. They want you to think that Republicans want one set of policies while Democrats want another — with no overlap between the two. But as you probably know, this just isn’t the case.
A Gallup poll released last week listed eight actions Congress could take this year and asked respondents to say whether they favored or opposed them. Of all eight possible congressional priorities listed in the poll, the most popular was: “pass an energy bill that provides incentives for using solar and other alternative energy sources.”
And according to Gallup, “of the eight proposals, the alternative energy bill and tax code overhaul ideas show the greatest bipartisan agreement, with 74% or more of each party group favoring these.”
You can see the partisan breakdown for each of the eight policies here:
This poll isn’t alone in showing bipartisan agreement on energy policy. Polling released by the Natural Resources Defense Council last week found bipartisan opposition to efforts to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency. According to the polling memo (PDF):
The majority of Republicans — and all Americans — oppose the former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s plan to dismantle the EPA.
Overall, only 25 percent of Americans agree with Gingrich’s call to eliminate the EPA. More than two out of three Americans (67 percent) oppose abolishing the EPA, including half (49 percent) who strongly oppose it. Among those opposing the Gingrich plan: 61 percent of Republicans, 57 percent of Independents, and 79 percent of Democrats.
While the prevailing narrative in Washington is that energy policy is too divisive to find common ground, the American people know otherwise. Support for investing in renewable energy technologies — and for the EPA’s mission to protect human health and the environment — remains both solid and bipartisan.
The full results of the Gallup poll can be found here (PDF), and the full results of the NRDC poll can be found here.
This is our potential future. Its victory for pour world and for our childrens world. People working and home grown energy. Let’s quit spending our $ defending the oil industry in the mid east.
Americans are beginning to understand the financial opportunity of renewable energy, as well as the positive implications for our national security; regardless of individual views on climate change. Grid supplied energy costs are continuing to escalate as they have done for the last 50 years and there is no way to turn back the clock. Coal, oil and nuclear are going to become much more expensive in the very near future.
Renewable energy costs are reducing rapidly and will continue to go down over time. The question in the minds of those who understand the situation is: will America benefit from the wave of renewable technologies or will we pass and continue to enable China to take advantage of our reluctance to act. It is time to embrace solar, wind and hydrogen as the backbone of our energy infrastructure and encourage US companies to invest in capturing the marketplace.
Please read my essay on a ten year plan to end all carbon emissions worldwide and immedialely begin the shift to a clean hydrogen world through the use of fuel cells and internal cumbustion hydrogen engines. Please see http://www.johnpnts.wordpress.com. The time has come to choose a solution, and I believe I have good news. Thank you.
John Pontious