The Political Climate: an ongoing commentary on the NH Primary and Climate Change

The summer of 2007 has been busy for both presidential candidates and voters from all around the state.  With energy from the Re-Energize NH March and all of our FOTPC’s, the presidential candidates should know by now that NH voters are very concerned about climate change. 

A recent report done by American Environics called “Energy Attitudes Summer 2007″ offers an analysis of national opinion research on energy and global warming as of June, 2007. 

Their studies found that the general public overwhelmingly believes global warming is occurring and is demanding action.  The report says that the debate over the existence of global warming is over and that an overwhelming consensus (70%) believes the government should be doing more to solve the problem.  Hmmm… does this sound oddly familiar?

While the report champions how strongly Americans support action to combat global warming, they conclude that it is not among the top few priorities of American voters.  They cite that only 23-48% of voters rank it as a very important issue.  A recent podcast from Now or Never Media reminds us that this doesn’t seem to be the case here in NH where 164 towns passed a resolution calling for national leadership on the issue.  The energy from these 164 towns, the 50+ emerging local town energy committees, the Re-EnergizeNH marchers, and FOTPC’s all over, reminds us that actions often speak louder than words.

The report indicates that voters strongly support large investments into clean energy sources to both achieve energy independence and deal with global warming.  This only furthers the message to presidential candidates that it is an issue on the mind of many voters and has a role in what America expects of our next president. 

The Environics report cites a Gallup poll from March 2007 that found significant support for “setting higher emissions and pollution standards for business and industry” with 84 percent of respondents favoring increased emissions standards.  Similarly, 79% of voters showed support for “imposing mandatory controls on carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases.” 

The report also found that while voters appear very open to policies that can protect the environment and the economy, they often grow weary when there is talk about economic hardship.  They write: ”any proposal that either does not address energy costs or results in significantly higher energy costs will likely face stiff public opposition.” 

The report conclusions offer valuable insight on how voters feel about energy and global warming; it seems voters will be far more supportive when candidates address both environmental and economic elements of their energy plans.  It may help if presidential candidates have a comprehensive plan to combat climate change that addresses these concerns and includes elements like economy-wide emissions reductions and aggressive research and development outlined in our 7 benchmarks.