70 percent of Americans favor greenhouse gas limits

[Bob Of Burleson]

A huge majority of Americans support
regulating carbon from power plants.
And they’re even willing to pay for it.

By Scott Clement and Peyton M. Craighill
The Washington Post

A lopsided and bipartisan majority of Americans support federal limits on greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll that also finds most are willing to stomach a higher energy bill to pay for it.

Fully 70 percent say the federal government should require limits to greenhouse gases from existing power plants, the focus of a new rule announced Monday by the Environmental Protection Agency. An identical 70 percent supports requiring states to limit the amount of greenhouse gas emissions within their borders.

Democrats and Republicans are in rare agreement on the issue. Fifty-seven percent of Republicans, 76 percent among independents and 79 percent of Democrats support state-level limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Strong tea party supporters are most resistant to limits on emissions by states and power plants; 50 percent say the federal government should impose caps, while 45 percent say they should not.

The cross-party agreement extends to a willingness to pay for such limits with higher energy bills, a flashpoint for debate and a key area of uncertainty in new regulations. Asked whether Washington should still go forward with limits if they "significantly lowered greenhouse gases but raised your monthly energy expenses by 20 dollars a month," 63 percent of respondents say yes, including 51 percent of Republicans, 64 percent of independents and 71 percent of Democrats.

Americans living in coal-heavy states are supportive of limiting greenhouse gas emissions in the poll, even as their states will be forced to make bigger adjustments to meet the EPA's new emissions targets. Among those in states where a majority of electricity is produced by burning coal, 69 percent say the government should place limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Support is a similar 71 percent in states where less than half of electricity comes from coal.*

MORE

[Red Oak]

They should hold their breathe, in that case

[planosteve]

Most Americans have been deceived into thinking that we are fracking our way to energy independence.

[BigTex]

How many of that 70% own an electric car?

[planosteve]

Democrats in North Texas are being asked to support Obama's new carbon standards.
Date: Tuesday, June 3rd
Time: 10:00 am to noon
Place: El Centro Community College, 801 Main Street, Dallas 75202
What: We will pass around petitions asking students to sign in support of the new EPA standards on carbon pollution from existing power plants. I will supply all materials. You will supply time and enthusiasm. We will meet just inside the main entrance to El Centro in an area where students gather to dine, study, and socialize. El Centro is downtown at 801 Main Street on the NW corner of the intersection of Main and Market. Metered parking is available on most streets in the area. This location is also convenient to DART rail and bus service.

[Cowman52]

How do people sit on their backside and come up with this idea that the sending Washington dollar on top of dollar is going to do " save the planet"? This ain't nothing but mega bucks to piss away on food stamps or another tank of fuel for air force one.

[Houston]

so we have new standards,
coal industry has no US customers. The US customers using scrubbers to clean exhausts.
coal industry exports coal to other countries.
these countries have no controls/scrubbers.
more pollution in the air.
the EPA is the federal gestapo

no coal to burn the cost of electricity will rise dramatically.
after the utilities have closed the coal burning plants they are not
gonna re-open them when the weeping comes for the high price of electricity.

[Bob Of Burleson]

Yep, pollution controls really killed the car industry, didn't they?

[jellowrestling]

Yeah, GM didn't go bankrupt

[Bob Of Burleson]

Yeah, GM didn't go bankrupt

And that was because of pollution controls?

[dublusk]

I favor them as well, but only if done in a slow and graduated way that will not inflict too much hardship on an industry or the economy. I am against what Obama is doing with his plan!!

[Bob Of Burleson]

I favor them as well, but only if done in a slow and graduated way that will not inflict too much hardship on an industry or the economy. I am against what Obama is doing with his plan!!

He's asking for a dollar but will accept a dime. That's politics.

[dublusk]

I favor them as well, but only if done in a slow and graduated way that will not inflict too much hardship on an industry or the economy. I am against what Obama is doing with his plan!!

He's asking for a dollar but will accept a dime. That's politics.

From what I see he is acting unilaterally with advise or consent of just about anyone except the EPA! How do you figure he is asking for a dollar but will take a dime?

[Bob Of Burleson]

Just watch how this plays out.

[truep]

Not me, While I believe we should try to keep the environment clean and healthy, I also don't believe we can do much to change Nature.
Remember the 70's when all the press was about the coming ice age?

[RaisinCain]

Most of these polls are very convoluted, and most of the participants are ill-informed.

If a pollster calls and ask "Do you favor less pollution" who is going to answer no? Only those with a grasp of ALL that that will entail would be educated enough to make an informed opinion.

[RaisinCain]

...Remember the 70's when all the press was about the coming ice age?

I was a kid in the 70's, but I have heard about this many times.

It is amazing that so much of the nation is willing to get their "facts" from under-educated reporters, who typically act like experts regarding any story assigned to them. I have met a few reporters in my life, and while many are nice enough they are of very average intelligence.

[planosteve]

There was a time when, if polling had existed, 99.9 of the people would have said that the earth was flat.
Global warmin' has been around awhile and most people know that if you are a Democrat you are supposed to believe it. So, they just answer that way.

[Bob Of Burleson]

China to take 6 million
older vehicles off roads

BEIJING (AP) – China's government plans to take 6 million older, polluting vehicles off the road this year in an effort to revive stalled progress toward cleaning up smog-choked cities.

The plan also calls for filling stations in Beijing, Shanghai and other major cities to switch to selling only the cleanest grades of gasoline and diesel, according to a Cabinet statement issued Monday.

The order comes after China failed to meet official pollution-reduction goals for 2011-2013, the statement said. It said vehicles registered before 2005 that fail to meet cleaner emissions standards will be "phased out," though it did not say how.

It called the country's environmental situation "extremely grim."

China's major cities are smothered in eye-searing smog. The country has some of the world's strictest emissions standards, but authorities have refrained from enforcing them until now to avoid forcing older, pollution-belching trucks off the road and hurting small businesses.

Monday's announcement suggests authorities have settled that conflict in favor of environmental protection following reports on the mounting health and economic costs of pollution.

MORE