Poll: Nearly Three Out of Four Americans Want Increased Renewable Fuel Use, Production

A US poll released by the organization Renewable Fuels Now—a coalition of associations and companies, including the National Corn Growers Association—shows that 74% of Americans believe the country should increase its use of domestically produced renewable fuels like ethanol.

In addition, 87% of Americans maintain the federal government should actively support the development of a renewable fuels industry in this country, and 77% think Congress should encourage oil refiners to blend more ethanol into their gasoline products.

Additional findings include:

• Seventy-seven percent (77%) of Americans want the government to provide incentives to encourage
  refiners to reduce their use of oil and increase use of renewables.

• More than three-quarters (78%) maintain that increasing domestic ethanol production will help
  create new jobs and improve the economy in rural America.

• Fifty-eight percent (58%) believe more use of domestically produced ethanol will help reduce our
  dependence on foreign oil

• Three-quarters (75%) of Americans view ethanol as somewhat important in reducing greenhouse gas
  emissions, with 41% viewing ethanol as extremely important in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The poll found that 84% of Americans believe something other than ethanol is at the root cause of rising food prices. Specifically, higher oil prices (46%), increased global demand (15%), and adverse weather conditions like drought (14%) were deemed to
have a greater impact on food prices than ethanol production (7%).

The poll was conducted October 23-25 by the Mellman Group and commissioned by the RFA. The poll surveyed 1,000 adults with a margin of error of +/- 3.1%.

Originally Syndicated via RSS from Green Car Congress