Poll: 80% Of Illinois Residents Want Electric Choice

A new poll commissioned by CleanChoice Energy indicates that 79% of Illinoisans want to be able to choose who provides their electricity.

Per the poll, 81% of residents want the right to choose an alternative provider even if their city or town has selected a provider through a municipal aggregation program. (Question asked: Would you like to be able to choose who provides the electricity for your home?)

The poll was conducted by SurveyUSA, which interviewed 550 Illinois adults who rent or own their home, pay their utility bills, and have at least some input on the household choice of their utility company.

Per the poll, Illinois residents overwhelmingly support the renewable Alternative Retail Energy Supplier model for clean energy delivery (77%) more than rooftop solar (45%) and other home efficiency products and smart thermostats (62%).

Survey results can be found here.

"The new polling bolsters the case that Illinois consumers are supportive of electricity supply options provided by Renewable Alternative Retail Energy Suppliers. The ability to choose clean energy is largely available to Illinoisans today because of the retail electricity market. Without the retail electricity market, hundreds of thousands of customers would not be empowered to choose their fuel mix. Other methods to choose clean energy include solar panels (accessible to only a small fraction [sic] homeowners) and community solar which is limited by the availability of projects. These latest polling results closely mirror results from other states and show the broad support residents have for energy choice," CleanChoice Energy said