The national poll data show a marked increase in concern about the environment since 1981, although people are beginning to see progress in environmental protection and improvement. Environmental concerns are beginning to affect energy choices. Energy production and consumption appear to drive air pollution, acid rain, and global warming. Although energy is not a highly salient public issue today, it could quickly become more prominent if oil supply disruptions or multi-state electricity outages, such as recent blackouts in the West, recur.

Because the public has exhibited strong and consistent preferences for energy efficiency and renewable energy for the past eighteen years, these energy alternatives are becoming more important to the private sector and public policymakers. Efficiency and renewables are widely perceived as environmentally advantageous, particularly when compared with conventional energy sources such as coal and nuclear power. What Americans think about energy and the environment means opportunities for industry and government to develop products, services, programs, and policies that customers and taxpayers want.

The public wants renewables and efficiency to be institutionalized-that is, to be built into the energy mix. Since the OPEC oil embargo, people have often been admonished to change their lifestyles and invest substantially in efficiency and renewables, yet without adequate business services to help them do so. Customers cannot choose efficiency and renewables when these choices are unavailable to them; customers also they do not want to bear all the risks of change themselves. They need organizations to stand behind efficiency and renewables, providing credible products and creative financing. When renewables and efficiency become a routine part of everyday business practice-the way the use of coal and nuclear energy are today-people will find them a customary part of their everyday lives.

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