Two Polls Show Concern | Green Energy News

March 13, 2005 – Vol.9 No.51

TWO POLLS SHOW CONCERN.

A survey conducted by Opinion Research for Results for America, a project of the Civil Society Institute, showed that across the board 2 out of 3 Americans see buying a fuel-efficient vehicle as Patriotic.

Respondents of the survey were described as being NASCAR fans, conservatives, those interested in cars, trucks and new technologies, and others. Polling of them showed that....

--- 89 percent thought there should be a government-set, 40 mile-per-gallon fuel-efficiency standard.

--- 26 percent have already purchased a more fuel efficient vehicle, 24 percent are thinking about it. But 40 percent said rising fuel costs wouldn’t force them to buy a more fuel-efficient vehicle.

--- 63 percent thought that America was falling behind in the hybrid technology gap. That is, they think Japanese companies have a significant lead in developing and introducing hybrid vehicles to the marketplace.

For the complete survey, as well as a calculator to determine how much can be saved by switching to a 40-mile-per-gallon vehicle, visit http://www.40mpg.org/.

Another survey - The Clean Fuels and Technologies Market Survey - released by Weststart -CALSTART, shows that the heavy-duty vehicle industry (truck builders and operators) is concerned about oil supplies. The industry, too, is concerned about how to cope with future demands for significant cuts in emissions, greenhouse gas and toxic.

Among the findings:

--- Diesel fuel is expected to drop to about 65 percent of the 2020 demand in the marketplace while biodiesel and gas-to-liquids (GTL) could expand to 20 percent by then. Natural gas is expected to grow to 11 percent of the fuel marketplace in 15 years.

--- By 2020 hybrid heavy-duty vehicles are expected to be 18 percent of the new vehicle market.

--- Oil supplies and costs will be a challenge to vehicle builders over the next 15 years. By 2015 greenhouse gas emissions will become a major concern.

--- Of respondents, 93 percent believe there is a relation between U.S. foreign policy and energy policy.

--- 69 percent think oil supply challenges will have a significant impact on U.S. businesses by 2015. 79 percent think the impact will be significant or very significant by 2020.

For this survey visit Weststart- CALSTART at http://www.weststart.org/ .