EWEA Blog - 71 per cent of Americans want to see more wind energy development

Published 27 March, the poll results noted that 71% of those surveyed said the nation should put more emphasis in the future on developing wind power. When broken down by political ideology, the poll results showed 83% of those who identified as Democrats favoured more wind power, while 59% of Republicans felt the same way.

“Far fewer want to emphasise the production of oil (46%) and the use of nuclear power (37%),” an accompanying Gallup press release said. “Least favoured is coal, with about one in three Americans wanting to prioritise its domestic production.”

“Republicans and Democrats disagree most on the priority that should be given to oil as a future energy source — with 71% of Republicans wanting more emphasis placed on it, compared with 29% among Democrats,” the press release said.

The poll results indicate that people living in the US South are apparently more supportive of traditional energy sources such as oil and coal than are those in other regions.

“The United States has a great opportunity to accelerate its economic growth over the next several years by emphasising and fully using its enormous energy riches to produce domestic energy,” the Gallup press release said.

Last year US wind power experienced a surge in growth that saw a record 13,124 MW of wind turbines added to the power grid, up 28% from 2011. And just last month, Bloomberg news reported that so much wind energy is now being generated in the US that it could seriously erode the country’s coal and nuclear sectors as wind energy undercuts power prices.

This latest opinion poll adds to a growing body of evidence showing that the public are in favour of wind power. Read more EWEA Blog posts on public opinion in the UK, France, Denmark, Austria and Estonia.