Public Wants More Emphasis Put On Clean Energy Sources

All we seem to hear from congressional Republicans is "drill, baby, drill". They want our government to put the emphasis on drilling for (and using) more oil -- probably because they get huge campaign donations from the giant oil companies. But it turns out that their own party is the only supporters for that. About 60% of the GOP base wants more emphasis put on oil production.

But the rest of America doesn't agree. Only 41% of the general public wants to see more emphasis put on oil production (38% of Independents and 28% of Democrats). And nuclear and coal forms of energy get even less support. Even the Republicans don't show a majority wanting to put more emphasis on them.

The public really wants the government to put more emphasis on clean (and renewable) forms of energy -- especially solar (79%) and wind (70%). Finishing in third is natural gas (55%) -- the cleanest -burning of the fossil fuels (although it's production through "fracking" can destroy soil and water).

These numbers are from a recent Gallup Poll -- done between March 5th and 8th of a random national sample of 1,025 adults, with a margin of error of 4 points.