The vast majority of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction when it comes to energy policy and want more leadership when it comes to dealing with future needs, according to a new poll. In survey of 3,406 Americans conducted by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, less than 14 percent of respondents said they think the country is headed in the right direction on energy, with 76 percent saying they are worried about the nation’s lack of progress on energy efficiency and development of renewable energy sources. Eighty-four percent said they were worried about the nation’s reliance on foreign oil. More than 40 percent said they expect the situation to be even worse in 25 years. When asked to rate the performance of numerous institutions and individuals, respondents were most satisfied with their own personal performances, followed by scientists and engineers, and then research institutions. They were least satisfied with the government and business leaders; Congress ranked last with only 8 percent of respondents calling its performance satisfactory.

photo: Alternative Heat

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360

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A new poll finds that the percentage of Americans who believe that the climate is warming has increased in the past year, a shift in opinion that follows one of the warmest summers in U.S. history and increased debate about climate change among Republican presidential candidates.

According to the Reuters/Ipsos poll, conducted from Sept. 8 to 12, 83 percent of respondents said they believe the climate is getting warmer, compared with 75 percent last year. Seventy-one percent said they believe human activities are partly or mostly to blame for climate change, while 27 percent said they believe it is the result of natural causes.

Stanford University Professor Jon Krosnick said this summer’s wild weather — including prolonged heat waves, droughts in some regions, and flooding in others — is changing public opinion. He also said that discussion of climate issues during recent Republican presidential debates seems to paradoxically have caused more people to believe the climate is warming; most of the Republican candidates have attacked climate science, but Krosnick said those attacks appear to have led more Americans to think about global warming and conclude that, in fact, its is real.

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

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According to a poll conducted by the Gallup Organization in early March , Americans are less concerned about eight specific environmental issues than they were one year ago.  Fewer than half of those surveyed–32 percent–said they felt that that climate change will have an impact on their way of life as compared to a high of 40 percent in 2008.

Close to 50 percent of Americans believe the threat of global warming is exaggerated. Fifty-three percent believe that economic growth, especially with regard to jobs and unemployment, is more important even if it has a negative impact on the environment, according to Frank Newport, Gallup’s editor in chief, as quoted in an article in USA Today .

Surprisingly, many Americans perceive that environmental woes in the US are improving; those polled were less concerned about other environmental problems than at any other time in the past 20 years.  According to Gallup, in 1989, 72 percent of Americans were worried about pollution of rivers, lakes, and reservoirs.

By 2004, only 54 percent were concerned, and 46 percent are worried about water pollution today.  Concern about pollution of drinking water is at the top of the list.

The eight environmental problems those questioned by Gallup in random telephone interviews of 1,014 adults 18 and older were asked about were:

Pollution of drinking water

Pollution of rivers, lakes, and reservoirs

Maintenance of the nation’s supply of fresh water for household needs

Contamination of soil and water by toxic waste

Air pollution

The loss of tropical rain forests

Extinction of plant and animal species

Global warming

In an article in Business Week , California Senator Dianne Feinstein was quoted as saying that those skeptical about the seriousness of climate change should support legislation that would put a cap on greenhouse gas emissions because new U.S. energy laws will be necessary to stimulate the growth of green jobs.

Article by Julie Mitchell appearing courtesy Celsias.

photo: ironmanxs

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This article by Susan Kraemer, appearing courtesy of Celsias, was originally posted on CleanTechnica.

An amazingly high percentage of people who live down the Mid-Atlantic Seaboard from New York to Virginia want wind turbines off their coast.

Even if they can be seen from the shoreline, 67 percent support off-shore wind power, according to a new  poll of coastal residents of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia .

If the turbines are out of sight, the level of support goes up to an astounding 82 percent.

A full 25 percent of the population of the US lives in the nine Atlantic states from Massachusetts to North Carolina. The potential is staggering.  So it is very fortunate that so many people in the middle of part of the region with such great potential for wind power feel this way.

Off-shore wind power off the Atlantic could take one third of the US population off the fossil grid.

The off-shore energy potential down all nine Atlantic states is a colossal 330 gigawatts. That is almost twice the total amount the nine states use: 185 gigawatts. The job would take over 160,000 5 MW turbines spaced about a mile apart down the coast. This would be an energy superhighway.

NIMBYism has been the impediment for development of off-shore wind power off the East Coast. This poll certainly had surprising findings, for the middle five of this nine-state wind powerhouse.

Most of the residents polled in the five middle states lived within a block or so of the ocean, three quarters of them are homeowners; about 15 percent with waterfront property. A third of the people are 60 or older.

Fully 90 percent of these coastal dwellers really get out and enjoy beach activities, swimming, walking, crabbing and clamming and they put a higher priority on protecting the coastal environment (76%) than improving the economy (69%), lowering taxes (65%), improving education (64%), or controlling growth (56%)

In March 2009, the governors of the five states in the middle of this wind energy goldmine had initiated an effort to develop an interstate agreement on ocean and coastal management for the Mid-Atlantic region. While NOAA funded a grant for the Urban Coast Institute and Polling Institute at Monmouth University to do the poll, coincidentally, the governors of the five states would need to know if there was any agreement on coastal development.

The Department of the Interior is developing a Comprehensive Energy Plan on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. There is a surprising level of agreement among coastal residents in the five states about what the government should do on a range of issues of interest to coastal dwellers.

While the poll questions covered many coastal issues, what jumped out at me was that these residents really agree on wind power off the Atlantic Seaboard.

[photo credit: Flickr]

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A significant majority of Americans supports President Obama’s efforts to overhaul energy policy and a slight majority favors a controversial program to place a cap and price on carbon dioxide emissions, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The poll found that nearly 60 percent of Americans back administration and congressional efforts to combat climate change and develop renewable energy and 55 percent approve of Obama’s handling of the issue, compared with 30 percent who do not.

A smaller majority, 52 to 43 percent, supports the cap-and-trade bill passed by the House of Representatives and now before the U.S. Senate. Support for a cap-and-trade plan grew slightly among independents, with a slight majority now favoring it, and only 5 percent of those polled said global warming is not an issue.

Public support for wind power, solar power, and electric cars is overwhelming, with 80 to 90 percent of respondents approving of a shift to these technologies.

In a separate report, the Washington Post describes how well-funded public relations campaigns by the oil and coal industries attacking the cap-and-trade bill are dwarfing efforts by environmentalists.

Appearing courtesy of Yale Environment 360.

[photo credit: Flickr]

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Three-quarters of Americans believe that the government should regulate greenhouse gas emissions, with a majority supporting restrictions on carbon even if they raise the price of goods and lead to higher utility bills, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The poll, released on the eve of a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on a carbon cap-and-trade bill, showed that a slim majority — 52 percent — supports that specific legislation. Sixty-two percent of those surveyed said they would support carbon regulation even if it means higher prices for goods, 56 percent expressed support if CO2 regulation leads to a $10 increase in monthly utility bills, and 44 percent said they would back a cap-and-trade program even if it means paying $25 more per month for electricity. Roughly 60 percent said the U.S. should reduce carbon emissions even if other countries do little to confront global warming.

The poll respondents were split along lines of age and income, with two-thirds of those under 30 saying they supported cap-and-trade regulations. Households earning more than $50,000 per year more strongly supported CO2 regulation than households earning less than $50,000.

This article originally appeared on Yale Environment 360 at http://e360.yale.edu

[photo credit: melancholic optimist]

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