New poll finds 85% of Californians want politicians to do more for solar

According to new polling released by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), 85 percent of Californians agree that policymakers should be doing more to encourage the use of solar power. In partnership with Global Strategy Group and North Star Opinion Research, SEIA surveyed 800 registered voters across California. The results demonstrate that solar enjoys widespread support in the Golden State.

Solar is clearly California’s favorite. Over 80 percent of respondents agreed that utilities should get more energy from solar. Solar received more support than competing energy sources like wind, natural gas, and nuclear. 70 percent of Republican participants also expressed support: agreeing that policymakers should do more to support solar. In an era of negative partisanship, the concrete benefits of solar have seemingly been able to transcend the political divide in California.

This strong public support follows increasingly hostile policymaking toward solar in California, such as the slashing of net metering and vetoing of solar incentives. More than two-thirds of Californians agreed that state policymakers are making it harder than they should to expand solar.

“Californians across the political spectrum have made it abundantly clear: solar has clear benefits for California,” said Steven King, Clean Energy Advocate at Environment California Research & Policy Center. “Policymakers need to rally behind this popular, proven clean energy resource.”