New Renewable Energy Loses Support Under Biden’s Administration; Interest in Electric Vehicles Drops, Survey Claims

Renewable energy has been promoted worldwide, but a new survey has found that the number of supporters in the United States has dropped.

New Renewable Energy Not as Popular Among Republicans

A recent Pew Research Center survey shows that support for new renewable energy projects has declined. However, most Americans want more clean energy from solar and wind farms.

Republicans have noticed a noticeable decline in interest in electric vehicles amid the Biden administration's plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The survey, conducted in May of this year, involved 8,638 US people. The participants include individuals who, in terms of color, ethnicity, gender, education, political affiliation, and other factors, are representative of the US population.

Based on the survey, the percentage of respondents who support increased solar power has decreased from 90% to 78% since 2020. Similarly, survey respondents' support for wind power fell by more than ten percentage points to 72% over the previous four years. Furthermore, compared to 38% last year, just 29% of adults said they would consider buying an electric vehicle for their next car.

There appears to be a growing party gap on clean energy technologies as the reason for those developments. Though opinions on climate change and renewable energy vary among older and younger GOP generations, Republicans have seen the most decline in support in recent years.

In 2020, a study conducted among Republicans revealed that 84% of them would like to see more solar farms, and 75% would prefer to see more wind farms in the US. This year, the percentage of people who support wind and solar farms has decreased to 56 and 64 percent, respectively.

Also, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to reject the Environmental Protection Agency's new greenhouse gas emissions rules for tailpipes, which are predicted to result in more than half of all automobile sales being electric by 2032-more than 80% of Republicans opposed versus 35% of Democrats.

These changes in viewpoint align with the Biden administration's efforts, following his election in 2020, to provide incentives for new renewable energy projects.

The $369 billion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which President Biden signed into law in 2022, is the country's largest investment in renewable energy and climate action. Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers have tried to impede the adoption of EVs by working to repeal the tailpipe pollution standards and reduce EV tax credits.

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Renewable Energy in the US

Renewable energy originates from boundless, naturally regenerating resources like the sun, tides, and wind. Transportation, space and water heating and cooling, and electricity generation are all possible with renewable energy. The US has shifted to renewable energy sources over the years.

Wood supplied almost all of the country's energy needs for lighting, cooking, and heating until the middle of the 1800s. Fossil fuels, namely coal, petroleum, and natural gas, have been the main energy sources since the late 1800s. Up to the 1990s, wood and hydropower were the most popular renewable energy sources. Since then, the United States has used more energy from geothermal, wind, solar, and biofuel sources. In 2022, the production and consumption of renewable energy in the United States reached all-time highs.

Around 13%, or 13.18 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu)-one quadrillion being the number one followed by fifteen zeros-of the total energy consumed in the United States in 2022 came from renewable sources. About 21% of all electricity generated in the United States in 2022 came from renewable energy sources, with the electric power industry contributing over 61 percent. 

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