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Survey Unveils Most US Citizens Believe Renewable Energy Should Have Priority Funding

June 17, 1999 by Jeff Shepard

A recent national survey confirmed that most US citizens believe renewable energy should be given priority for federal energy funding and that nuclear power and fossil fuels should be the first technologies cut, according to the Sustainable Energy Coalition (Takoma Park, MD). The survey questioned 1,029 adult Americans 18 years of age or older. For the fifth year in a row, a majority of all Americans (62 percent) and more than two thirds of those expressing a preference (69 percent) would give the highest priority to funding the US DOE renewable energy programs which includes solar, wind , geothermal, biomass and hydroelectric. By large margins, 78 percent of respondents support including a renewable energy portfolio standard requiring ten percent of electricity to be regenerated from solar, wind , geothermal and biomass sources and hydroelectric.