Domestic energy poll gives PERC reason for optimism

October 12, 2012 By    

A Propane Education & Research Council (PERC)-commissioned poll indicates Americans are divided on whether they believe the country is on the right or wrong track related to domestic energy sources.

According to the poll Harris Interactive conducted for PERC, 45 percent of Americans believe the United States is headed in the right direction in its pursuit of domestic energy sources. Forty-three percent, however, believe the direction the country is going is the wrong one.

Overall, the poll revealed that 78 percent of Americans want their political leaders to work on policy promoting domestic energy sources. And that’s a percentage PERC’s Roy Willis pulled as a positive for the propane industry.

“Our primary opportunity is in centrally-fueled fleets,” said Willis, PERC president and CEO, in an interview with Politico. “Those include things like school buses and delivery trucks.”

Other takeaways from the PERC-commissioned poll:

– The most widely cited rationale for pursuing domestic energy sources, among the 93 percent considering it important to do so, is energy security (85 percent), followed by job creation and economic security (84 percent) and lower prices at the pump (72 percent).

– Thirty-nine percent of Americans believe the government, not consumers (20 percent), corporations (18 percent) or small businesses (14 percent), should lead the nation in adopting domestic sources of energy.

– Nearly 75 percent identify support of new environmentally friendly energy technology and products and infrastructure as topics they would like to see political leadership address in the coming year.

– Sixty-one percent say they have bought more environmentally friendly products this year than they did five years ago.

“Americans understand that the choices they make as consumers have a profound effect on where the road to a cleaner, greener future takes us,” Willis said. “But they ultimately hold political leadership and government accountable as the ones who should pave that road.”

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About the Author:

Kevin Yanik was a senior editor at LP Gas Magazine.

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