Americans Happy To Pay More For Clean Energy, But Only a Little More

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday May 17, 2012 @12:03AM from the worth-the-money dept.

Fluffeh writes "A recent study of over 1,000 folks for a paper published in Nature Climate Change has found that the average U.S. citizen is inclined to pay a premium to ensure that by 2035, 80% of U.S. power comes from clean energy. At random, respondents received one of three "technological treatments" or definitions of clean energy that included renewable energy sources alone, renewable sources plus natural gas, and renewable sources plus nuclear power. Delving into the socioeconomics, researchers found that Republicans, Independents, and respondents with no party allegiance were less likely by 25, 13 and 25 percentage points respectively to support a NCES than respondents that identified themselves as Democrats."

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Re:Solar power satellites by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-17 00:15 · Score: 5, Interesting

There is a reason they're absent: the numbers don't work.
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2012/03/space-based-solar-power/
People are skeptical about paying more for power precisely because of boondoggles like that. How are we to know if the money is going to scientifically sound solutions or to someone's infeasible pet project, or worse, to their brother in law.