A new Pew Research Center survey of more than 3,500 U.S. adults finds that Americans are cooling on wind and solar. In 2020, 79% of those polled said the U.S. should prioritize developing wind and solar energy over fossil fuels. Today, that number is just 57%, or a 22-point drop in six years.
Republicans and Republican-leaning voters are leading the way. In 2020, a majority—or 65%—of Republicans said that developing wind and solar should be the priority. Now, just 28% say so, and the share who say the U.S. should prioritize fossil fuels—including natural gas, coal, and oil—has doubled to 71%. While Democrats and Democrat-leaning voters still overwhelmingly favor prioritizing wind and solar, at 83%, this share has also fallen from 91% in 2020.
Cost and reliability are the main reasons that support for wind and solar is dropping. Among Republicans, 44% say that wind is more costly than alternatives, and 43% say the same about solar. Only 24% think the cost of solar is lower than alternatives, and 19% think wind is cheaper. Even among Democrats, 20% believe the cost of solar is higher than alternatives, and 14% believe the same about wind.
Majorities of Republicans view both wind and solar as less reliable than alternatives, with 56% saying this about solar and 67% about wind, respectively. Even Democrats don’t believe wind and solar are more reliable than alternatives, with only 28% believing this about wind and 36% about solar.
These perceptions track with what’s actually happening to people’s bills. The U.S. average residential electricity price has grown from 13.15 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2020 to 17.3 cents in 2025, an almost 32% increase without adjusting for inflation. When energy costs are climbing on every front, it’s not surprising that voters are less inclined to tell a pollster they want more subsidies for sources they associate with higher prices and a less reliable grid.
There’s a growing bipartisan bright spot: support for nuclear power. Support for federal encouragement of nuclear energy has risen among both Republicans (from 42% to 54% since 2022) and Democrats (from 32% to 38%). Nuclear is the one zero-carbon source that also delivers on reliability and baseload power. Since 2022, federal government support for coal mining and oil and gas drilling has also become more popular (seven and five percentage points, respectively), while support for subsidies for wind and solar has dropped seven points.
Americans are increasingly skeptical that wind and solar can deliver on cost and reliability. Wind and solar have enjoyed broad, bipartisan goodwill that has not survived contact with rising electricity bills. Americans, instead, are ready for an energy policy that prioritizes affordability and reliability first.