A policy director of an environmental advocacy organization spoke at the University of Wisconsin about Wisconsin voters’ outlooks on clean energy and fossil fuels Thursday.

Senior Policy Director for Clean Wisconsin Keith Reopelle said the organization found through focus groups and polling studies Wisconsin voters share positive attitudes toward clean, renewable and efficient energy across party lines.

He said this was an attempt to be able to tell candidates how voters feel about using more clean energy in a variety of sources including hydropower, wind power, solar power and biomass.

In two election cycles, both in 2010 and now in 2012, Clean Wisconsin has been fortunate enough to run non-partisan candidate education projects, Reopelle said.

He said the organization commissioned focus groups and polling. He added it then made the data available to candidates for state office in order to share with them how voters feel about clean energy issues, why the issues are important to voters and what language should be used to best resonate with voters.

Reopelle said focus group and polling data was complied jointly by two firms: Fairbank Maslin, Maullin, Metz and Associates and Public Opinion Strategies. He said these were the leading Democrat and Republican pollsters in the nation, respectively.

“That’s critical you realize it is completely non-partisan,” Reopelle said.

Though in the discussion he focused on Clean Wisconsin’s findings in the state, the studies in 2010 and 2012 were also done in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio, Reopelle said. 

Reopelle said two-thirds of voters in Wisconsin believe the state should prioritize the use of clean, renewable energy. He also said voters in his polling showed support for a policy to get 30 percent of the state’s energy from renewable resources.

He said this result was the most supported in the focus groups, which was surprising since few details of logistics were presented to the groups.

“One qualification here is that the question was just asked, ‘Would you support getting a 30 percent renewable requirement for the state of Wisconsin?'” he said. “Nothing was set about cost, jobs or any other impact.”

He said his results also showed voters from both parties believe increasing the use of renewable energy and improving energy efficiency would create new jobs across the state of Wisconsin by a wide margin.

Ultimately, Reopelle said from focus groups Clean Wisconsin was able to find what kind of messages and wording resonates best with voters, which will help Clean Wisconsin talk to candidates about addressing clean energy on their platforms.

Graduate student in the School of Journalism Linda Pfeiffer attended the event and said she felt encouraged there are businesses looking at public opinion and making it clear to lawmakers.

“I am really encouraged they are working with small businesses in Wisconsin to help lawmakers understand what the concerns of small clean energy businesses are,” Pfeiffer said.

Pfeiffer added she found it surprising even though Wisconsin public opinion is so strongly in favor of clean energy and state policies, lawmakers continue to reject wind energy for Wisconsin.