Do you want to buy energy-efficient appliances? Are you unsure which ones? If you answer yes, you're in good company, according to the latest Green Confidence Index.

The October survey of 2,500 U.S. adults finds that one in four, 25%, say they want to buy green "big ticket" items in the near future, which is twice as many as did so in the recent past. Yet only half, 53%, feel they have enough information to pick the right household appliance. This interest, and uncertainty, comes as states begin this month to offer rebates to encourage consumers to buy more efficient Energy Star household appliances as part of the federal "Cash for Clunkers" appliance program. To learn more about these incentives, check out this Department of Energy website.

As the economy remains weak, the monthly survey also shows that the share of people buying green products, whether groceries or personal care products or "big ticket" items, has fallen since the first survey was taken in August.

"There's a broad gulf between green concern and green consumerism," says Joel Makower, executive editor of GreenBiz.com, an online resource for greening business and co-publisher of the subscription-based Green Confidence Index. Makower, author of the 1989 book, The Green Consumer, says data on consumer attitudes haven't changed much in the last two decades. He says people want to make green choices if the product costs the same and looks and feels as good.

In an interview with Green House, he says the best-selling Toyota Prius is starting to shift attitudes a bit. "It has this very cool image," he says, adding consumers can buy it at the local Toyota dealership and drive it like a regular car.

"There's a huge gap" in green consumer attitudes, says Amy Hebard, chief research officer of Earthsense, a marketing and research company and co-publisher of the index. Hebard says there are the "supergreens," the 7% or so of U.S. adults who say it's very important to them to recycle and do everything they can to be green. On the other end are the skeptics. Most people fall somewhere in between.

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