Poll Finds Overwhelming Support for Wind Power in Nebraska

A new poll released today finds overwhelmingly favorable impressions of wind power among Nebraska voters (94% favorable, 69% strongly favorable). And a strong majority of Nebraska voters (79%) favors requiring electric utilities to use renewable energy sources for at least 20% of the electricity they generate. Support for a 20% renewable electricity standard extends across all demographic and geographic groups - including 71% of Republicans in western Nebraska.

The Global Strategy Group poll was released by the Center for Rural Affairs, American Wind Energy Association, Wind Coalition and Energy Foundation - all proponents of a strong, federal renewable electricity standard.

"We are most encouraged by the fact that the strong support for wind energy knows no geographic, political or demographic bounds. From Falls City to Scottsbluff, from Hartington to Imperial, rural and urban, Republican and Democrat, there is overwhelming support for wind energy and more than 3 to 1 support for a 20% renewable electricity standard," said John Crabtree of the Center for Rural Affairs.

Support among Nebraska voters for the 20% proposal is driven by concern over rising energy prices (important to 75%) and our dependence on foreign oil (important to 73%) rather than by a concern for the environment (important to 58%).

Crabtree points out that 91% of Nebraska voters surveyed agreed with the statement, "Nebraska should meet its electricity needs by using renewable energy such as wind power."

"Clearly, a vast majority of Nebraskans recognize the economic importance of wind energy development for the entire state and that in rural Nebraska, in particular, there are tremendous economic opportunities for farmers, ranchers and rural communities in Nebraska playing a pivotal role in America's energy future," concluded Crabtree.

The Global Strategy Group memo on the poll results as well as polling data toplines and tables are available at: http://files.cfra.org/pdf/NE-Wind-Poll-Memo.pdf,  and http://files.cfra.org/pdf/NE-Wind-Poll-Topline-Tables.pdf

The poll was conducted on a sample of 500 registered voters in Nebraska. Telephone interviewing was conducted February 7-10, 2010. The sample was selected in such a manner that all households with a working landline telephone were equally likely to be contacted. All polls are subject to errors associated with interviewing a sample rather than the entire universe. The estimation associated with a sample of 500 is +/-4.4 points. In other words, these results are within 4.4 points of the results that would be obtained from interviewing the entire population of Nebraska registered voters.

The Center for Rural Affairs was established in 1973 as an unaffiliated nonprofit corporation under IRS code 501(c)3. The Center for Rural Affairs was formed by rural Nebraskans concerned about family farms and rural communities, and we work to strengthen small businesses, family farms and ranches, and rural communities.