Justin Gillis, writing for NYT Green:
Analyzing a survey they conducted in 2011, researchers at Harvard and Yale found that the average United States citizen was willing to pay $162 a year more to support a national policy requiring 80 percent “clean” energy by 2035. Nationwide, that would represent a 13 percent increase in electric bills.
Willingness to pay studies are always difficult size up—people are more spendthrift when they aren’t actually spending. But this study is heartening if only because it shows people haven’t given up on clean energy, even with the economy in the toilet.