Global Warming and Oil: Americans are Concerned

March 12, 2006 – Vol.10 No.51

GLOBAL WARMING AND OIL: AMERICANS ARE CONCERNED.

Two bad hurricane seasons in a row. One hurricane wipes out most of a city. Winter on the U.S. east coast is the mildest in decades. Prices at the pump trend upwards. Home heating costs skyrocket. The situation in the Middle East is tense, to say the least.

Americans on both the political right and left are becoming concerned: Something is amiss with the weather. Energy is no longer cheap and secure. At least in peoples minds the two are connected. Washington sits on its hands, they think.

According to a new study conducted by the Opinion Research Corporation for the nonpartisan Civil Society Institute (CSI) and its spin-off 40mpg.org, most Americans agree that oil and global warming are becoming real problems and Capitol Hill and the White House are doing little about them.

In a survey of 1029 adult Americans:

--- 58 percent, including 57 percent of independents and 42 percent of conservatives are more concerned about global warming than two years ago.

--- 76 percent, including two out of three conservatives, think the federal government is not doing enough to address global warming and develop alternative energy to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

--- 83 percent, including 77 percent of conservatives, support state initiatives to curb global warming and promote new energy sources.

--- 83 percent, including 72 percent of conservatives and 85 percent of independents would like to see more attention paid to global warming during the 2006 Congressional elections and the 2008 Presidential elections.

The list goes on with similar responses to similar questions. Americans, by a significant majority see two problems and connect them through Washington.

The full study is available through the Civil Society Institute or 40mpg.org which promotes 40 miles per gallon as a new national fuel economy standard. 40mpg also tracks individual members of Congress on fuel efficiency votes and has a web-based tool that calculates the fuel cost savings of getting forty miles per gallon. Visit them at http://www.civilsocietyinstitute.org/ and http://www.40mpg.org/ .