Public support slips for steps to curb climate change

Submitted by admin on Tue, 05/08/2012 - 09:27

In USA Today:

From gas-mileage standards to tax breaks for windmills, public support for "green" energy measures to tackle global warming has dropped significantly in the past two years, particularly among Republicans, a new poll suggests.

Majorities still favor most such tax breaks or restrictions on industry, finds the Stanford University poll to be released today. It shows 65% support gas-mileage standards and 73% support tax breaks for wind and solar power. But just 43% support tax breaks for nuclear power, 26% support increasing gasoline taxes and 18% support hiking taxes on home electricity.
 
Overall, support for various steps to cut greenhouse gas emissions has dropped an average of 10 percentage points since 2010, from 72% to 62%, lead researcher Jon Krosnick says. "Most Americans (62%) still support industry taking steps aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions," Krosnick says, "but they hate the idea of consumer taxes to do it." His group's nationwide polls compared responses from 1,001 people in 2010 to 1,428 people this year....
 
And in NRO:
 
In recent months, major coalitions of big business/big labor/green lobbyists, formed to combat climate change, have begun unravel. What this portends for the future of the climate controversy is anyone’s guess, but one point is clear: The waning support for these groups is good news for jobs and sound policy.
 
Environmentalists founded these groups to camouflage the fact that their policies could be demonstrated as bad for the economy and job creation. Corporations and unions joined largely because cap-and-trade legislation and the push for “green jobs” seemed inevitable, and it was in their interest to work with environmentalists to shape climate policies.
 
But today, the climate-change headlines have been replaced by more immediate concerns over unemployment and foreclosures. As the economy took center stage, environmental groups manufactured a new threat to stir up their supporters and raise funds for their operations. This new target of their campaigns is hydraulic fracturing...