While most Democrat voters consider reducing climate change a higher priority than concerns about rising energy costs and support for increased drilling for oil and gas, that isn’t the position held by most voters overall.
A new national phone and online survey from Rasmussen Reports and the Heartland Institute shows 82 percent of likely U.S. voters are concerned about rising energy and gas prices. That includes 60 percent who said they are very concerned.
Sixty percent favor a law that would increase oil and gas drilling dramatically in America. Thirty percent oppose such a law.
Fifty-two percent of voters believe Congress and President Joe Biden should focus more on increasing oil and gas drilling in an effort to reduce energy prices. However, 34 percent believe policy focus should be on limiting carbon dioxide emissions in an effort to reduce climate change.
Seventy-four percent of Republicans and 54 percent of unaffiliated voters believe increased oil and gas drilling should be the policy focus. But 54 percent of Democrats want focus on reducing climate change.
“When push comes to shove, polls consistently show energy and economic security trump climate change for a majority of the public when asked which is more important,” said H. Sterling Burnett, director of Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at the Heartland Institute. “Oil and gas remain, for the foreseeable future, vital to maintaining our present standard of living and lifestyles and to ensure continued economic and national security. This Heartland/Rasmussen poll indicates the public understands that fundamental fact.”
Fifty percent of voters believe it is likely climate change will be catastrophic for humans, plants and animals within the next 100 years. Forty-two percent said they do not believe climate change is likely to be catastrophic within 100 years.
“Despite three decades of propagandizing, just 50 percent of those surveyed believe climate change poses a real threat to humans or the environment over the next 100 years,” Burnett said in a statement. “By contrast, a strong majority of Americans support government policies that would expand oil and gas production, regardless of climate change.”
