No divide here: both sides want wind power

Earlier this week, one of the gold standards in U.S. polling released a new survey right in line with what we’ve been seeing since the spring. The Pew Research Center found 77 percent of Donald Trump’s supporters and 88 percent of Hillary Clinton’s supporters want more wind farms built in the U.S.

This trend began in the spring, when Wall Street investment firm Lazard, Inc. found 91 percent of likely voters support growing wind power, including 81 percent of self-described conservatives.

Over the next several months, other surveys confirmed these findings, regardless of geographical location or political leanings. Results were similar in states as diverse as New York and Texas. 89 percent of New Yorkers want more wind energy, according to a Nature Conservancy poll, while 85 percent of Texans responded the same way in a poll conducted by a nonpartisan group that supports both natural gas and renewable energy.

Then there’s Iowa, whose residents know wind energy as well as anyone since the state has the most installed wind power by area in the country. In a poll of the Third District, 91 percent of voters supported wind, demonstrating the more people know about wind, the more they like it.

That’s not too surprising. Wind energy provides a financial boost for communities that host the turbines. In Van Wert County, Ohio, for example, the extra tax base paid for laptops for every student; fully funded the laptop repair and replacement fund; and built a new athletic center that was opened to every county resident.

It’s good for everyone who pays an electric bill, too. Wind-generated electricity has come down in cost by two-thirds in six years, and now saves consumers billions of dollars a year on each of the regional electric grids in America.

In a time of division, wind power continues to be an issue that unites Americans.