While most Americans would like to see more clean energy from solar and wind farms, support for new renewable energy projects has begun to wane, according to a recent report from the Pew Research Center. surveyHe also noted a drop in interest in electric vehicles following the Biden administration's policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and a backlash from Republicans.
The survey found that the share of people who favor more solar power has declined from 90 percent to 78 percent since 2020. Support for wind power among survey participants also fell more than 10 percentage points to 72 percent over the past four years. And just 29 percent of adults said they would consider an electric vehicle as their next car purchase, down from 38 percent last year.
The growing partisan divide over clean energy technologies appears to be driving those changes. The biggest drop in support has been among Republicans in recent years, even though there are differences between how older and younger generations in the GOP view climate change and renewable energy.
The Pew Research Center surveyed 8,638 adults in the United States in May of this year. It seeks to include participants who are representative of the American population in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, education, political affiliation and more.
The biggest drop in support has been among Republicans in recent years
In 2020, 84 percent of Republicans surveyed said they would like to see more solar farms and 75 percent said they would favor more wind farms in the United States. That support has fallen to 64 percent and 56 percent, respectively, for solar and wind farms this year. More than 80 percent of Republicans surveyed, compared with 35 percent of Democrats, oppose new Environmental Protection Agency rules for tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions, which are expected to push more than half of auto sales to electric vehicles by 2032.
Those shifts in sentiment coincide with the Biden administration’s push to incentivize new renewable energy projects since being elected in 2020. President Biden signed into law in 2022 the nation’s largest investment in climate action and clean energy, the $369 billion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers have sought to slow EV adoption by attempting to roll back EV tax credits and block the tailpipe pollution rule.
While many Republican lawmakers have criticized the IRA’s investments in electric vehicles and renewable energy, much of the funding it created for clean-tech manufacturing is actually flowing to their districts. Of the $206 billion in investments so far, $161 billion is earmarked for projects in Republican districts. According to a recent study Bloomberg analysisMost of that money goes toward manufacturing electric vehicles and batteries. CNN Analysis Similarly, nearly 78 percent of IRA investments were found to go to Republican congressional districts.
We’ll have to wait and see if that infusion of money changes Republicans’ views on renewable energy. But the situation could also shift again among younger Republicans, who are far more optimistic about solar and wind power than their older counterparts. Only 22 percent of Republicans age 65 and older in the survey said expanding renewable energy production should be a priority. In contrast, 67 percent of Republicans ages 18 to 29 said renewable energy should be the priority over coal, oil and gas production. Overall, young adults are more likely to think climate change will cause more damage in the U.S. over their lifetime, according to a separate Pew report. survey published in October.
