A new poll finds that only a minority of Americans now favor tax breaks for nuclear power or further taxing gas and electricity, especially among Republicans, reports Dan Vergano at USA Today. 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 poll researcher Jon Krosnick suggested that distrust of environmental scientists among Republicans might have fueled the drop, which was 14% among Republicans but only half that for Democrats. But a majority of people do favor tax breaks to encourage the spread of solar and wind energy sources. “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.” In a March Gallup poll, over half of Americans agreed that “global warming is caused by human activities,” similar to percentages in past years. If a majority want to use incentives rather than taxes to curb carbon emissions, however, a more politically acceptable goal might be to make clean energy cheaper rather than fossil fuels more expensive.
Source
Public support slips for steps to curb climate change. 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. USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/globalwarming/story/2012-05-02/greenhouse-gas-global-warming/54810942/1
