New Gallup Poll Shows Americans Want Renewables, Not Nuclear

A new Gallup poll released at the end of March shows that Americans are decreasing their interest in nuclear energy, while showing an increasing desire for renewable energies such as solar and wind energy.

The new poll, the results of an early-March telephone survey of 1,025 random American adults, showed that only 51% of Americans favour the use of nuclear energy for electricity, with 43% opposing.

As can be seen, 51% is down considerably from nuclear energy’s 2010 high, down almost to 2001’s record low of 46%. According to Gallup, the 2010 high was the result of President Barack Obama’s announcement that the federal government would provide loan guarantees for the construction of two nuclear reactors, but since then, “support has generally dropped.”

The same poll recorded respondents support of solar, wind, and natural gas over oil, nuclear and coal power.

Solar power is the most popular it has been, with 79% of Americans saying they believe the government should focus more on it, followed closely by wind power. Thankfully, Americans appear to be very unhappy with coal.

And interestingly, support for natural gas has dropped since 2013, down 10 percentage points.

Sadly, despite increased emphasis desired on renewable technologies such as solar and wind, and less emphasis desired on coal, natural gas, and nuclear power, Gallup also found that fewer than three in 10 Americans believe the energy situation in the US is “very serious,” one of the lowest recorded figures by Gallup in the history of asking the question.

The past four years has seen the trend of Americans concerned with the energy situation decline, and only in 2002 were fewer Americans concerned with the energy situation, in the 38-year history of the question.