Energy Costs Are Surging, But Solar Is Winning over Skeptics

In 2020, not a single American polled by Gallup named energy costs as their family’s most important financial problem. Today, that number has spiked to 13%. That’s up 10 percentage points from 2025, the highest since the 2008 financial crisis. Cost of energy is now tied with cost of housing as Americans’ second-biggest stressor, trailing only the overall cost of living.  

Against that backdrop, solar is emerging as a rare point of bipartisan agreement. When Gallup conducted its annual Environmental poll this March, it found that even though overall enthusiasm has cooled, two-thirds of Americans still prefer more emphasis on producing solar energy domestically.

A recent survey puts data behind the shift. In a mixed-mode survey commissioned by American Energy First and conducted by Kellyanne Conway’s firm KAConsulting, pollsters surveyed 1,000 registered voters in Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Texas. Of those voters, 83% agreed that solar energy should be used in the United States to strengthen and increase the country’s energy supply.  

In that same survey, the vast majority of respondents said they would be even more supportive of solar once they learned that clean power manufacturing contributes $18 billion to the economy annually and supports 122,000 American jobs, figures projected to reach $86 billion and 575,000 jobs by 2030. They also learned that solar is the fastest, most cost-effective option to meet the United States’ immediate power needs. And that Texas — where half the state’s electricity comes from renewable sources — has seen improved grid reliability and electricity prices below the national average.

“The [survey] results are less polarized politically than they are pragmatically,” Conway said at the American Council of Renewable Energy policy forum in February, according to Politico. “I think people are a little bit more pragmatic when it comes to energy.”

A separate study reinforces that point. The nonprofit Potential Energy polled more than 15,000 people in the United States and found that 75% of Americans believed the country is facing a cost of living crisis, yet less than 3% blame clean energy or climate policies for it. More than half already believe clean energy costs the same or less than energy derived from fossil fuels. And more than half believe building solar in more places will do more to lower energy costs than new oil and gas drilling.  

“Now is not the time to shy away from clean energy or climate change conversations,” Potential Energy concluded. “With the right messages, we can build momentum for the lasting solutions we so urgently need.”