TechNet has released a new poll that found that wide majorities of the American people support their utilities offering more technologies for home energy management and smart metering, which are key parts of creating a national energy smart grid.

"The American people strongly support cutting-edge innovations to help them save money on their energy bills and change their electricity consumption," said Jim Hawley, acting CEO of TechNet. "As the world gathered in Copenhagen over the past few weeks to discuss better ways to manage our energy resources, this data proves that our citizens are willing to embrace technology to become more efficient and to save on energy costs. Technology solutions are critical to a robust deployment of a national Smart Grid and helping us be smarter about the way we use energy and our natural resources."

• 74% of Americans polled are likely to change their energy use in order to  save money on their utility bills if they were given new technology  solutions.
• 88% of Americans polled would like their utility companies to invest in new  technologies.
• 77% of Americans polled would like their utility to help them reduce energy  consumption.

For the past four years, TechNet has promoted policies to spur green innovation, fostered by visionary entrepreneurship, as a key driver to address the nation's energy, economic and environmental challenges. This effort has included strong efforts to expand the nation's Smart Grid and its supporting technologies. TechNet and its member companies believe that cutting edge innovation and smart deployment of clean energy technologies can reduce costs for consumers over the long run, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide the foundation for robust economic growth in the future. Many of TechNet's policy prescriptions were included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act earlier this year to push forward on a new smart grid, create new green technologies and new efficiencies through innovation.

The survey of more than 2300 Americans was conducted in November 2009 for TechNet by Zogby International. The margin of error is +/- 2.1 percentage points.