Change in Republicans’ Thinking Shifts Policy Support in Renewables

Americans have been and continue to be hungry for energy, in any effective form they can get it, renewable or not. While a majority of Americans still prioritize renewables in energy policy, a shift is taking place, mostly among younger Republican and Republican-leaning individuals, according to a recent Pew Research Study. This has been changing since the end of Trump’s first term in office.

While the battle continues for the hearts and minds of Americans over the debate between fossil fuels and renewables, the current Trump administration appears to be responsive to this shift by setting priorities for the development of fossil fuels. Democrats and Democrat-leaning respondents to the Pew poll remain staunchly in favor of renewable priorities, although there is a minor slippage in the numbers there as well.

It appears that there needs to be room for all of it. Energy appetites tend to exceed energy sources globally. Maybe Republicans are thinking the next 10 years ahead, rallying behind Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” mantra, while perhaps Democrats are more worried about 25 years from now? The survey is silent on that one. Mizuho Securities thinks there’s only 25 more years of oil shale wells left to drill anyway. Regardless of the source, from oil fracking to coal mining, more Americans support fossil fuel development, according to Pew.

At the same time, Republicans have weakened their support for renewables since the first Trump administration. Perhaps it’s because wind and solar are extraordinarily inefficient compared to fossil fuels, according to the Institute for Energy Research. How inefficient? According to a 2022 study, solar costs ten (10) times as much as gas to generate electricity, and wind costs seven (7) times as much. Hopefully, that will change soon. Either that or the decline in fossil fuel supply will make renewables competitive on price in the future.

Something both Republicans and Democrats agree on is that phasing out new gasoline cars by 2035 is unpopular (65% of the entire sample). California and 11 other states have adopted plans to ban new gas cars and trucks by 2035, but the House and Senate have blocked the plan thus far. Another is that more nuclear power is a good thing (both parties have majorities in favor of more development in that area). Several AI plants will be powered by nuclear energy. Maybe we could build a nuclear-powered car with a mini reactor? Well, that was dreamed up in the 1950s with the Ford Nucleon and later fantasized in the 1980s with Doc Brown’s DeLorean. In reality, we still have a long way to go on that one.