The Washington Post is reporting this morning that according to joint poll conducted with ABC News, a majority of Americans support Obama’s and Congress’ efforts to overhaul US energy policy, and that support includes passage of comprehensive climate and energy legislation. Says the Post:
“Nearly six in 10 of those polled support the proposed changes to U.S. energy policy being developed by Congress and the administration. Fifty-five percent of Americans approve of the way Obama is handling the issue, compared with 30 percent who do not.”
And, the poll found that 58 percent of Americans would support lowering global warming pollution even if it cost them $10 more month. Two interesting points on this: One is that the Department of Energy says proposed legislation would cost as little as 23 cents a day – in other words, $6.90 per month, well below the $10 threshold. Wonder how that would affect the support figures?
Second interesting point is that the 58 percent level of support is 2 percent higher than the last time the Post/ABC poll posed the question, back in June.
Which means that this summer’s oil- and coal- fueled barrage of attacks on clean energy have pretty much failed to persuade Americans that the US should stick with dirty energy.
And the failure to change the minds of real Americans probably explains why we are seeing so much fake opposition to clean energy.
This has been a summer full of forged letters, fake constituents, ficticious FACES and fabricated citizen groups courtesy of financing from the likes of Peabody (the world’s biggest coal company), ExxonMobil (the world’s biggest publicly-traded oil company) and Koch Industries (one of the world’s most dedicated supporters of front groups).
With the astro-turf growing so out of control, its nice to see a reliable measure of public opinion cut it short again.
This post originally appeared on Switchboard.
