Wired Up! 83% of Americans support incentives for using solar.

Source: Climate Progress

A new Gallup poll shows strong support for more renewable energy incentives.

Guest Blogger Daniel J. Weiss is CAPAF’s Director of Climate Strategy.

Congressional advocates of suspending the Clean Air Act to block the Environmental Protection Agency from requiring reductions in carbon dioxide pollution either don’t know or don’t care that the public overwhelmingly opposes their efforts. What’s worse is that they pretend that the public is on their side just because their big oil and other special interest pals are egging them on to stop EPA from protecting our families’ health.

Take Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), the new Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. In December he co-wrote an article with the head of Americans for Prosperity, an organization funded by the Koch Brothers who own Koch Industries – a major polluter. The article falsely claimed that “We think the American consumer would prefer” that EPA not establish carbon pollution safeguards. This claim is disproven by recent public opinion research.

ORC International – the pollster for CNN – conducted a nationwide poll for the Natural Resources Defense Council. It found overwhelming support for more – not fewer – EPA safeguards.

This ORC International survey … conducted among a national probability sample of 1,007 adults… [The] survey was completed during the period January 27-30, 2011. The margin of error …is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Americans want the EPA to do more, not less. Almost two thirds of Americans (63 percent) say “the EPA needs to do more to hold polluters accountable and protect the air and water,” versus under a third (29 percent) who think the EPA already “does too much and places too many costly restrictions on businesses and individuals.” Well under than half of Republicans (44 percent), less than a third of Independents (29 percent) and under a fifth of Democrats (16 percent) think the EPA is going too far today.

Americans do not want Congress to kill the EPA’s anti-pollution updates. Only 18 percent of Americans – including fewer than a third of Republicans (32 percent) — believe that “Congress should block the EPA from updating pollution safeguards,” after being told: “Some members of Congress are proposing to block the Environmental Protection Agency from updating safeguards to protect our health from dangerous air pollution, saying they will cost businesses too much money.” More than three out of four Americans (77 percent) — including 61 percent of Republicans – say “Congress (should) let the EPA do its job.”

The latest USA Today/Gallup poll found that creating incentives to invest in solar and other forms of alternative energy is the top priority of Americans.

Of eight actions Congress could take this year, Americans most favor an energy bill that provides incentives for using alternative energy (83%), an overhaul of the federal tax code (76%), and speeding up withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan (72%).

Of the eight proposals, the alternative energy bill and tax code overhaul ideas show the greatest bipartisan agreement, with 74% or more of each party group favoring these.

With Republicans in control of the House of Representatives and Democrats in control of the Senate, it would appear the proposals with the best chances of passing are those that generate strong bipartisan support. That is clearly the case for a bill that would provide incentives for increased use of alternative energy.