Why do Americans want wind and solar power?
On climate change, Americans are divided along rigid partisan lines, with few areas of overlap. There鈥檚 one exception: people across the political spectrum agree that the nation should grow its wind and solar resources.
The bipartisan popularity of wind and solar might provide a road map for clean-energy activists and civic leaders hoping to convince the public to back measures to boost the still-minuscule share of energy generated by those sources.聽
鈥淭he distinction here is that it shows broad-based support for expanding solar and wind聽and more mixed support for other forms of energy,鈥� says lead author Cary Funk, in an interview with 海角大神.
Eighty-nine percent of US adults say they favor more solar panel farms, and 83 percent favor more wind turbine farms,聽聽That support contrasts with public opinion on energy sources like coal, fracking, offshore drilling, and nuclear plants, where slim majorities in the fiftieth percentile oppose further development.聽Some 41 percent of Americans said they had thought seriously about installing solar panels at home, citing cost savings and environmental impact, with 4 percent actually having done it.
That's a sharp contrast to the ideological divides glimpsed in responses to other Pew Center questions on the topic. Less than a quarter of Republicans believe climate change stems from human activity, compared to almost 7 of 10 Democrats; Democrats are considerably more likely to trust that climate scientists will give full and accurate information on environmental changes, with only 15 percent of conservative Republicans believing that鈥檚 the case; and similar divisions play out on perceptions of the broad scientific consensus on the causes of global warming.
鈥淲hat we can鈥檛 see here鈥� in the latest survey, notes Ms. Funk, 鈥渋s how people would prioritize investment in different areas.鈥�
In a 2012 book 鈥�,鈥� University of Wisconsin sociologist Thomas Heberlein wrote that experts on environmental problems go wrong when they try to 鈥渆ducate the public鈥� without taking into account prevailing attitudes. Technological fixes, he argued, 鈥渕ust be designed to be consistent with public attitudes.鈥�
The Pew survey shows that at least over the short term, proponents of wind and solar technologies may find a way to 鈥渟ell鈥� communal solutions using the different ways they appeal to different crowds.
鈥淧eople can easily project their values with wind and solar in ways that are difficult to do with other technologies,鈥� says Alex Trembath, communications director at the Breakthrough Institute, an Oakland-based think tank on environmental issues. 鈥淎 Democrat might really like solar because they care about climate change and clean air technology, and care about the evil fossil fuel industry. A Republican might care because it鈥檚 a decentralized technology ... you can put it on your rooftop, and not worry about a centralized authority.鈥�
鈥淵ou can imagine both on big scales or on very small scales. They come in all shapes and sizes,鈥� he tells the Monitor. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really a benefit to those technologies. If you鈥檙e a nuclear [power] advocate like I am, you wonder about how you can learn from it.
Low oil prices 鈥� and the fracking boom that has helped drive them down 鈥� have led at least some analysts to worry that renewable energy sources could begin to slip down the list of government priorities, as the Monitor noted in September. Americans remain divided over wether the boom in natural gas found in from shale formations, whose extraction has triggered earthquakes and contaminated water supplies, could serve as a bridge fuel to a low carbon future.
"You need subsidies for renewables because we are not there yet, by far,鈥� former chief executive of the International Energy Agency Maria van der Hoeven told the Monitor in 2014. 鈥淵ou need subsidies not only for technologies that are economically more or less viable, but also for new technologies to come. Governments need to use their money to really push technology development and new types of renewable energy that are still in a lab stage or in a pilot phase.鈥�
But with the price of wind and solar power falling fast, the International Energy Agency foresees a rosy future for these renewable energy sources 鈥� especially for solar, which the IEA thinks could go from less than 1 percent of the electricity market today to the , reported Bloomberg last year.
Mr. Trembath says that the newness of wind and solar might also aid their popularity. 鈥淸T]he reasons to oppose it don鈥檛 jump to mind, and the association with any government policy isn鈥檛 the most immediate thing.鈥�
[Editor's note: An earlier version misstated when the Monitor's interview with Ms. van der Hoeven took place.]
鈥淚t isn鈥檛 just marketing 鈥� wind and solar are legitimately clean ... but in abstract terms, Democrats, Republicans and everyone in the middle gets to project their values on the technology.鈥�
