Climate change barely registers as a priority issue for most Americans who are more concerned about the economy and national security, according to new polling from the American Council for Capital Formation.
The poll, conducted by Morning Consult, also found that while most Americans distrust the federal government, Congress, and corporations to find effective solutions to climate change they do want to see bipartisan solutions.
“People do want to see Democrats and Republicans at the table,” said Pinar Çebi Wilber, chief economist for the council. “There has to be a balanced solution. You can’t just say we’re going to switch to 100 percent renewables in 10 years. It’s almost impossible to change the grid in that timeframe without hurting affordability for reliability.”
The percentages from the poll are dire for political foes of oil and natural gas: 70 percent are not willing to pay more on utility bills; 67 percent do not want to pay more for transportation costs; 67 percent do not want higher food costs; 66 percent say no to higher taxes.
That could put a dent in Democrats’ plans, which primarily call for higher costs across the board to force a phase-out of fossil fuels.
“It’s hard to say to low-income people that you’re going to have to pay more to switch to 100 percent renewables,” Çebi Wilber said, adding that it’s shortsighted to exclude energy sources like natural gas and nuclear power from models.
Of the 2,198 adults polled from Sept. 13 to Sept. 15, 57 percent identified themselves as earning less than $50,000 per year. The largest age demographic are Boomers but Generation X and Millennials combined for more than half of the respondents.
Residents in New York state are seeing the consequences of cutting off natural gas. Earlier this year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo rejected a permit to build a new pipeline to transport natural gas from Pennsylvania.
Environmental groups cheered the action, but two state utilities – Con Edison and National Grid – put a moratorium on new natural gas hookups.
In Maine, lawmakers tried to levy a carbon tax that would have increased taxes on gasoline and heating oil.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, nearly two-thirds of households in Maine use fuel oil as their primary home heating source. Petroleum accounts for half of all energy use in the state.
Energy In Depth, a research program of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, noted that, since 2005, natural gas has cut 50 percent more greenhouse gas emission in the U.S. than wind or solar combined. 4
The new poll indicates that 70 percent of the country wants to continue using natural gas.
Meanwhile, the top Republicans on the U.S. House Commerce and Energy Committee applauded the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration strengthening pipeline safety.
“These new rules will strengthen the safety of more than 500,000 miles of gas transmission and hazardous liquid pipelines across the country, which are essential to help keep prices low for consumers and drive our economy forward,” said Rep. Greg Walden and Rep. Fred Upton in a joint statement.
The Energy Subcommittee approved the Safer Pipelines Act of 2019 by voice vote but the full committee has not yet taken it up. The pipeline program expires at the end of September.
Read more at Inside Sources
There are far more important issues then some fake crisis like Global Warming/Climate Change the fools are the the ones taking part in protests and blocking traffic showing what idiots they are
A little history…. years ago propane was just a byproduct of the oil refining process. It was often flared off, for lack of a market.
Somehow figured out how to use it to fuel taxis and buses, in a dual – fuel system with gasoline . The owners of those vehicles could fill up with whatever was cheaper at the time. The refinery flaring stopped and the price of propane went up. Imagine the situation for people who had only propane as a home heating fuel.
The same could happen with natural gas, if the suppliers figure out a way to wring more money out it. Keep your options open.
Well, unlike the hysterics from the likes of Saint Greta and the kids skipping school most of us look at the world with some historical perspective. We fail to see some catastrophe around the corner that would warrant us to destroy our economies for. And we’ve been listening to the gloom and doom since at least the ’70’s with the coming Ice Age only to have the doomsayers pivot to something called Global Warming once the coming cold started to warm. But when that warming also ended they pivoted again to “Climate Change” with the disappearing of ice everywhere and the ocean swallowing whole islands. When that didn’t occur then yet another pivot to climate crisis where every storm, flood, forest fire, drought, … was proof that the world will soon end if we don’t quickly stop using fossil fuels for anything and everything.
And anyone wonders why the public doesn’t buy it? Or doesn’t assign it the critical problem we must solve immediately? I’m shocked!
How can anyone consider a situation a crisis, particularly when it doesn’t exist. More than that, the general sense is that, said condition could actually be a benefit to the world, since a warmer planet means more food production, milder weather condition, less disease, reduced heating fuel needs. Instead of fighting global warming, I propose helping it be true. But then, humans really cannot affect climate anyway. Let’s learn to live with the earth that nature gives us.
Fossil Fools? We see lots of fools in the picture above
The Stupid Elite Alarmists: It may very well end up with their Beto madness trying to force people to change their lives and PAY. They think they can hire the police and military to force people to pay. Think about this. The police and military and not well paid.
The data in the article clearly shows that a strong majority oppose all of the measures that the leftist want to impose in the name of climate change. Does that make any difference to them? Of course not, these people don’t believe in democracy. Lack of support for their agenda just means they have to find a means to by pass democracy