Americans’ support for renewable energy is falling, study finds

A poll released Thursday by the Pew Research Center shows older Republicans are driving down Americans’ still strong support for renewable energy.

While solar and wind remain popular, support for expanding them has waned. In 2020, solar expansion had support from 90 percent of respondents; that dropped to 78 percent. Wind saw a similar decline, from 83 percent in 2020 to 72 percent today.

“While there is still broad public support for renewable energy, the extent of it is less widespread than it was four years ago, or even a year ago,” said Alec Tyson, the report’s lead author and deputy research director at Pew.

According to Pew’s report on the poll, the decline is “almost entirely due to changing views of Republicans.” Since 2020, Republican support for more solar and wind farms has declined by about 20 percentage points.