In an election year where partisan disputes take center stage, Americans across the board are finding common ground in the need for clean, innovative energy, according to a new survey.
The survey, conducted March 22-25, 2012, of 1,019 Americans, for the Civil Society Institute (CSI) — a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank — found that the majority of citizens agree it is imperative for the United States to sever its dependence on dirty energy.
The study found that 83 percent of Americans — comprised of 69 percent of Republicans, 84 percent of Independents and 95 percent of Democrats — agree that “The time is now that for a new grassroots-driven politics to realize a renewable energy future.
The same percent agree that congress is debating large public investments in energy and we need to take action to ensure that our taxpayer dollars support renewable energy — one that protects public health, promotes energy independence and the economic well being of all Americans, according to the findings.
“I think the main takeaway of the survey is that this alleged partisan gridlock in DC and the Indiana State House is fiction,” said Kerwin Olson, executive director of Indiana’s Citizens Action Coalition — Indiana’s oldest and largest consumer and environmental right organization. “[Legislators] like to politicize everything, when both parties are responsible for doing what Americans want, and most want clean energy.”
Regardless of what partisan talking heads may say, 68 percent of those surveyed believe it is “a bad idea for the nation to ‘put on hold’ progress towards cleaner energy sources during the current economic difficulty.”
Most people surveyed — 67 percent — think that political leaders should steer the U.S. to greater use of cleaner energy sources, including increased efficiency, wind and solar – that result in fewer environmental and health damages.”
This is while only 30 percent of Americans think that political leaders should stay out of the energy markets and let private enterprise have a free hand in picking energy sources and setting prices.
Read the other facts that fly in face of partisanship at http://www.civilsocietyinstitute.org/media/042512release.cfm
