Election season can be divisive – in our country, in our cities, and sometimes, even our homes. It seems like every go around, it becomes harder to find common ground. But there is one point on which many people, from all walks of life, agree- we should accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy.
It shouldn’t be particularly surprising that clean energy enjoys such broad support. Solar and wind power projects are helping clean our air, creating thousands of jobs, and helping to mitigate the worst potential impacts of climate change.
Pew Research Center 2016
A Pew Research Center 2016 Survey found that across the political spectrum, large majorities of people support the expansion of solar panel and wind turbine farms. Some 83% of Republicans favor more solar panel farms; so, too, do virtually all Democrats (97%). Similarly, there is widespread agreement across party and ideological groups in favor of expanding wind energy.
Overwhelmingly, people are behind renewable energy because it makes sense in our economy. Over the past decade, the cost of solar power in the United States has declined 86 percent and wind 67 percent, as supply rises to meet a continually high demand. On the job front, there are about 50,000 who work in the coal mining industry in the United States, compared to the 349,000 Americans who work for solar-related businesses.
Renewable energy has been supported historically more by left-leaning voters, as demonstrated by voting patterns and campaign donations. However, rapidly falling cost of solar and wind energy, due to technological gains (among other factors), have allowed renewables to now be cost competitive with traditional fossil fuels. To be clear, the debate over energy sourcing has not concluded altogether, but rather has softened, shifting toward allowing market access, healthy competition and customer choice as to where, how and from whom you purchase your energy.
In order to gain a broad understanding of their attitudes regarding energy issues on the state level, the Conservatives for Clean Energy (CCE) commissioned a statewide survey of 600 North Carolina voters in May 2018 survey. The results showed that support for clean energy continues to grow among North Carolina voters, regardless of political affiliation or ideology, unequivocally confirming the findings of the 2016 Pew survey.
Mark Fleming, the Executive Director of The Conservatives for Clean Energy, spoke to Holocene on these findings, and shared,
“We continue to see strong clean energy supporters developing on the right (often among those who were once ‘skeptics’ of the economic value of clean energy). The dramatic drop in the cost of wind and solar has been a tremendous help in changing “hearts and minds” on the right. In short, clean energy is now cost competitive with fossil fuels and that fact is creating a growing number of conservative clean energy supporters.”
Non-partisan support for renewable energy can be a beacon of hope and a silo of peace for us as individuals, communities, and corporations amidst a season of tension and division. If the arguments for cost competitiveness, climate benefits, and consumer-driven demand are true, then perhaps we will find ourselves in a place where wind and solar truly will produce 50 percent of the world’s electricity by 2050. As our country continues to move towards renewables, will it be our energy source that helps us all to see across the aisle, and unites us as a country?