The Zogby poll results mirrors the recent Gallup poll It’s the economy, stupid. Even so, with opinion on Cap and trade in the minority it seems plans are in place to move forward.
On Earth Day, Secretary Chu warmly embraced the administration’s cap-and-trade proposal, stating, “We must state in no uncertain terms we have a responsibility to our children to curb emissions from fossil fuels…”
Q. President Obama wants to impose cap-and-trade laws that would limit the total carbon dioxide emissions allowed to be released into the environment. These laws would turn carbon dioxide into a commodity allowing those that pollute less to sell credits to those that pollute more. These credits would be traded on commodities markets. According to congressional testimony given by the Director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, “decreasing emissions would also impose costs on the economy – much of those costs will be passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices for energy and energy intensive goods.” Some have estimated these costs to be $800 to $1300 more per household by 2015. Knowing this, do you support or oppose cap-and-trade laws?
Support 30%
Oppose 57%
Not sure 13%
Q. Which course of action should America take with regards to energy
policy?
Make energy cheaper by developing all sources of U.S. energy, including coal, nuclear power, offshore drilling and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 54%
Reduce America’s production of fossil fuels that might cause global warming 40%
Not sure 6%
The O’Leary Report/Zogby poll was conducted April 24-27 of 3,937 voters nationwide and has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 1.6 percentage points. Slight weights were added to party, age, race, gender, education to more accurately reflect the population. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.
Brad O’Leary is publisher of “The O’Leary Report,” a bestselling author, and is a former NBC Westwood One talk show host. His new book, “Shut Up, America! The End of Free Speech,” is now in bookstores. To see more poll results, go to www.olearyreport.com.
Texas Aggie (07:44:48) : “…Yet they don’t want this thing to actually pass…because it will…lead to such a backlash as to lose enough seats in the House to lose control, as in the 1994 Hillary Care debacle.”
Texas, you’re assuming there will still be an election in November, 2010. If the polls show the Republicans likely to take control of Congress, the election will be “postponed” until after “the crisis” is over.
Dave D,
You can’t pay for health care with your letter and the facts, the truth is not what Obama is interested in.
JamesG (09:14:29) :
The free market has provided its users with the world’s highest standard of living, and the best medical care, and a greatly increased life expectancy.
A good example is North Korea vs South Korea. Your “tight state control” [communism] vs the free market [capitalism].
I am always astonished that some people would actually rather live under a system like North Korea’s, rather than a system like South Korea’s.
@ur momisugly $1300 per year, the poll question is letting the AGW camp off the hook lightly.
That price tag per individual will cost a heft sum more, and take a lot of jobs & productivity with it. The hidden costs will at least double it.
Hence, the opposition.
Most Americans have already witnessed what high gas prices did to them and every aspect of their lives. Cap & Trade will be just as bad or worse, and they know it.
Aah, Chu !
Hansen1, Nonsense1.
Best science blog or best political science blog?
Reply: Notice that this article is filed under “politics.” ~dbstealey, mod.
Slightly OT – and I find this hard to believe, but the high school athletic association in my state in the US has canceled all high school playoff events this weekend due to the swine flu pandemic. I find it hard to fathom that with 236 cases confirmed by the WHO worldwide, along with 7 deaths, out of 6,000,000,000 people on this planet, that a state agency would cancel athletic events when there is not even one confirmed case of swine flu in the state because they are concerned that swine flu will sweep through the athletic field and stands.
More and more we are kowtowing to the state on mathematically insignificant risks, whether it be AGW, swine flu, or the ludicrous mass evacuations from perfectly safe areas in the “path” of a hurricane.
Risk is an inherent feature of life. Whether or not we act HAS to be determined by first analyzing the risk to confirm its level, and next determining the cost of an “action” designed to minimize the risk.
Currently we just strive for zero risk in the face of the perceived threat without ANY analysis of the costs or consequences of the actions taken to minimize the risk.
For AGW, there is debate as to whether there even is any risk, and people are FINALLY actually looking at the cost of cap and trade. For these mass evacuations in the face of hurricanes, some hurricanes actually wind up with more deaths FROM THE EVACUATION than from the storm surge or falling trees.
We need more scientific method and less emotion in governmental affairs.
Tight State Control?
So a repressed country has less reduction in living standards because of government control than a free country. Great! So their standard of living only went from 11% of a free country to 10%, while the free country dropped a full ten percent.
Absolute insanity, this is what I am watching. Cap and Trade is not even remotely understood by the general population, and I think the point of this poll is that EVEN WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING IT, the majority are against it.
There is a quote from whoever the lefty is saying “If the Republicans manage to paint this as a tax, we’re sunk”, or words to that effect. I read that as, “If our opposition manage to educate the rubes, we’re sunk”.
There should be rules and laws limiting the power of ANY administration, banning them from these sort of decisions. Oh yeah, there are! One particular side simply ignores them. Go Figure.
I know it sounds like hyperbole, but watching this administration waltz in has been like watching a particularly fantastic episode of the old Twilight Zone. They are so absolutely clueless, and the people who voted them IN appear equally clueless, that it is downright frightening.
The original intent of “cap-n-trade” was as a means to fund the UN Millennium Development Goals. It was the vehicle for funding Sen. Obama’s “Global Poverty Act” that was left to die on the Senate floor last year after clearing committee.
But like all ideas that are left to fester, Global Poverty has been supplanted by “government poverty” .. err .. lack of revenue.
““We must state in no uncertain terms we have a responsibility to our children to curb emissions from fossil fuels…”
The dumb communists have the RESPONSIBILITY to our children to provide a decent standard of living and a healthy economy. Not to address some completely unproven boogieman. How the hell can a man with the credentials of Chu not “notice” that the emperor has no clothes. No statistically sig. warming for 12 years and a strong COOLING for 5-6 years. The leftists are absolute socialistic morons. IMHO.
JamesG (09:14:29) :
Your analysis has not taken into account the countries where the washington consensus was a great success, like Chile and Peru; this last country GDP last year’ s growth was of 9.84%.
In 1992 when economic policy changed, millions were left jobless but…those millions left jobless, 16 years after, the majority of them turned into private entrepeneurs, because there was nothing more, no other alternatives, left. Some of these micro, small, medium and now big companies now succesfully struggle in the international arena. These are the men and women who will substitute all those others in the world who changed their mind choosing the herd, the bee hive, the ant’s hill, not the open fields of freedom and humanhood.
Neo is right. Former UN Sec-Gen Kofi Annan repeatedly proposed a “World Tax” equal to 0.7% of the developed countries’ GDP. The U.S. cost would be about $140 billion annually. About $1,600 per taxpayer per year.
Kofi Annan’s mistake was to call it a tax. That was later rectified by morphing it into the UN’s “Millennium Development Goals.” But it’s the same thing: a proposal to tax the G-8 countries and redistribute their wealth.
The problem with this proposal [other than the fact that the taxpaying citizens would strongly oppose it] is that the world’s poor are not poor because of the U.S. The world’s poor are poor because of their governments.
Singapore has no natural resources. Japan has very few natural resources. Yet both countries are wealthy. Africa has numerous destitute countries, from Algeria to Zimbabwe, which are rich in natural resources but have extreme poverty. The only difference is in their governments.
If the UN actually cared about the poor, it would insist that those countries reform their governments. But of course the UN only cares about taking the wealth from the well run countries, and handing it over to the leadership of poor countries — with the UN as the tax collecting intermediary, accumulating power by taking its cut of the proceeds.
Obama wants to do this. From Wiki: “Had [the proposal] come up for a final vote on the Senate floor, it would have been the one and only piece of legislation which passed with Sen. Barack Obama as the chief sponsor.”
Hmm, so the fact that Bush started the ball rolling with a stupid $700 billion is justification for Obama and the lefty loons to quintuple the bad idea. Now THAT’S shoveling some crap!
Had the free market ideology been firmly in place, no bailouts would have happened. Had the free market ideology been firmly in place, banks would not have been forced to make loans to people who people who could not pay them back (Community Reinvestment Act).
It was the politicos who created the mess with their interference in the free markets. And then our ignorant American masses believe all the nonsense put forth by the MSM. The AGW hype is just symptomatic of the broader intellectual laziness of people who accept the MSM mantras, “CO2 is bad,” “the science is settled”, “free markets are bad,” “evil Wall Street.” It’s all the same thing.
Heck, when Vladimir Putin starts lecturing us about the dangers of going down the socialist path, as he did in February, we ought to wake up!
What motivates Congress to impose a complex solution, ripe for corruption and influence pedaling …
I think the motivation is to buy and sell favors.
Just a thought, but since we’re bandying numbers about, my understanding was that Cap&Trade was supposed to generate at least $650 billion in the first year. Assuming there were 250 million tax payers, that’d be $2,600/tax payer. To get just $1,600/tax payer you’d need 406 million people chipping in.
It’ll also be fun to see how this proposal can be revenue neutral and fund national healthcare simultaneously.
JamesG (09:14:29) :
One more point. Countries where the washington consensus did not have success were those where it was not applied properly.
Thanks.
@ur momisugly JamesG (09:14:29)
Wow, there were so many incorrect facts in your post it’s little wonder your conclusions are 540 degree off the mark (that’s a complete circle and a half).
Was it non-regulation when the Federal Reserve increased the money supply so banks had more money to lend? (BTW, the POTUS does not run the Fed.)
When Bush and other members of his administration warned about the abuses of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and tried to get Congress to reign them in, was that deregulation?
How about the Community Reinvestment Act, which requires banks make loans to the poor? Or how about Sallie Mae and Freddie Mac telling lenders not to worry, the US Treasury will back up these loans, make all you want?
No, that was INTERFERENCE in the free market. Ethical capitalism is the worst economic system ever, except for all the others, of course. Why do you oppose free people trading freely?
And China is succeeding because they are embracing capitalism, not because they are controlling their economy. China does not have central control of it’s economy. Communism kept China in the dark ages while the rest of the world advanced through the 20th century and into the 21st.
BTW: The worst environmental disasters in the world have been perpetuated by the Communists. Remember eastern Europe during the Soviet era? Which was less polluted, western Europe or Communist Europe? In which countries were people free to express themselves, petition the government and speak out in favor of cleaner air and water? Chernobyl didn’t happen in a free country.
It was Lenin who allegedly coined a phrase for people who worked for their own destruction by supporting Communism. I won’t use it to describe you, but you should look it up.
Mike86 (10:40:34) :
Just a thought, but since we’re bandying numbers about, my understanding was that Cap&Trade was supposed to generate at least $650 billion in the first year. Assuming there were 250 million tax payers, that’d be $2,600/tax payer. To get just $1,600/tax payer you’d need 406 million people chipping in.
It’ll also be fun to see how this proposal can be revenue neutral and fund national healthcare simultaneously.
When politicians say cap-and-trade will be used to fund social programs, they are speaking out of both sides of their mouth. Cap-and-trade can’t both decrease emissions and pay for other programs. If cap-and-trade works, it will bring in less money each year, while the money spent on those social programs will continue to increase.
No, it’s just a money grab and a power grab. They want to take money from people they don’t like and give to people they like better (their voters). This used to be called theft.
Mutual caressing and self indulgement are the characteristics of a feeble personality. You achieved what you achieved because you chose liberty.
Reread Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass”, specially the “Song to Myself”..
and cry upon you…if you still can.
I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise,
Regardless of others, ever regardful of others,
Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man,
Stuff’d with the stuff that is coarse and stuff’d with the stuff
that is fine,
One of the Nation of many nations, the smallest the same and the
largest the same,
A Southerner soon as a Northerner, a planter nonchalant and
hospitable down by the Oconee I live,
A Yankee bound my own way ready for trade, my joints the limberest
joints on earth and the sternest joints on earth,
A Kentuckian walking the vale of the Elkhorn in my deer-skin
leggings, a Louisianian or Georgian,
A boatman over lakes or bays or along coasts, a Hoosier, Badger, Buckeye;
At home on Kanadian snow-shoes or up in the bush, or with fishermen
off Newfoundland,…etc.
Dissing Zogby is not ad hominem.
I am not attacking the person – I am questioning the reliability of the polls done by the Zogby International which, by chance, has the same name as its founder.
Here’s what the Wall Street Journal had to say recently –
(BTW – the WSJ isn’t exactly “Mother Jones”.)
“During a campaign, pollsters can build credibility by forecasting election results accurately. Afterward, they can build revenue by using that credibility to attract private clients. These private surveys often have an agenda, and their numbers can’t be tested against an objective standard, such as votes. Such surveys can test pollsters’ standards of conduct.”
“Zogby International recently conducted a survey for a critic of president-elect Barack Obama and then, together with the sponsor, interpreted the numbers from the survey in a misleading fashion.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/numbersguy/zogbys-misleading-poll-of-obama-voters-459/
The above question is, similarly, a classic example of “Push Polling” – where the pollster influences the choices the respondent makes. I have no great love for Cap-and-Trade, but to wave a poorly done poll by a pollster with a questionable recent record does one’s argument no good.
Stick with Gallup and Rasmussen – to mention a few good pollster.
The next financial bubble has already started
“How to profit from carbon trading”
http://www.moneyweek.com/investments/commodities/how-to-profit-from-carbon-trading.aspx
“Carbon funds: funds set up not just to trade, but also to create credits in emerging markets (with a view to selling them on when the price rises).”
Unlike sub-prime mortgages which are secured on a property (a real commodity)
“A carbon credit is not a real, deliverable commodity.”
When the carbon bubble bursts, carbon credits will worth nothing not in 10years, 20years, 50years, not even in a 1000years. If you have got the balls to invest in these credits get in first take a quick profit and head for the hills.
I’m sure just one of many,
http://www.climatechangecapital.com/home.aspx
O/T….Oh NO! The horror!
Electric cars: the shocking truth
http://www.tgdaily.com/html_tmp/content-view-42252-178.html
At the end of the test, the BMW returned a shocking gas mileage of just 19.4 miles per Imperial gallon. The eco-friendly Prius returned an impressive 17.2 mpg. Err, right. So if I want to save the planet, I need a fast BMW rather than a rather sad hybrid econo-box.
Ignoring the pathetic gas mileage, the Prius also uses highly-toxic rare metals that have to be shipped halfway round the world to be refined, then halfway round again to be screwed together into a car.
The carbon footprint of this ‘green’ vehicle is astonishingly-large. Taking the energy costs and emissions of building the thing and then safely disposing of the noxious components in its batteries into account, you’d have to drive it to Venus and back before you saw any real planet-saving gains.
Prediction: This will drive a LOT more traffic to WUWT over the next year as people start to become more engagaed & want to see what their representatives are signing them up for.
The irony of this is that cap & trade is essentially a very regressive tax being imposed by a liberal administration. The fact that the Green left could convince the Dems to push this agenda, which is basically a raw deal for their core constituency, is really amazing to me. I wonder how many of our reprresentatives understand the science of AGW , how many are accepting AGW as fact without research & how many would still support cap & trade if they knew the science, given the huge political liability it represents.
“much of those costs will be passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices”
Much??? Who’s picking up the tab for the rest of the costs if not the consumers. I guess it could be taxpayers, but they are just a subset of consumers.
Anyone have a clue why Foxnews isn’t all over this? It seems like their kind of story. They spent hours of air time on some stupid DHS memo that, by my reading anyway, didn’t say what they said it said. Actually it didn’t really say much of anything. However, much like Clinton lobbing bombs during the Lewinski days, it is distracting the populace and media from the more important story.
Escribo en mi idioma,el espanol,convencido de la veracidad de estadisticas que indican que “es el idioma mas estudiado en el pais del Norte”.Y conciente ademas de que transito por un ligar selecto,culto;en en que las elites intelectuales ilustran con su conocimiento a personas como yo;un ciudadano “de a pie”.
Primero;sorprendido y desencantado por lo vicario de los comentarios hayados en mi busqueda de consejos sabios,de humanismo y progresismo en tema tan trascendental.
Segundo:Me habre confundido y,producto de ello,ingresado al Web Site del Partido Republicano o-me atravieza hasta la empunadura, como una helada daga el temor-al Web Site de Dick Cheney…quizas al de “W”?.
Tercero:No.La presencia de partidarios de la razon,de la sensatez en las politicas energeticas,me tranquiliza.Si,hay quienes superando la estupidez,
el utilitarismo mas burdo,la ceguera boba;el cretinismo hecho politica;opinan en la misma direccion del HOMBRE DEL SIGLO XXI.No son los “antropofagos que quieren que en su digestion diaria este presente carne de tiranosaurios y de trilobites.Aquellos Jurasicos Republicanos que desean agotar,hasta las eses y otros detritus de sus congeneres.
Cuarto:Los Estados Unidos de America tienen la suerte de ser hoy comandados por una suerte de Mesias inspirado que sabe que hacer y como hacer.
Las politicas del Sr Barack Obama en todos los campos y,dentro de estos,el sector energetico nos dan la certeza,mas que la simple esperanza,que los tiempos de la barbarie estan por llegar a su fin.En lo propuesto como targets hay tanto de humanismo como de criterio de realidad sano,puro;extensivo al mundo,al planeta en su totalidad.Obviamente alla,a la distancia;se perciben los alaridos,los graznidos,los mugidos de satrapas heridos,insensatos sectarios Republicanos fuera de Epoca,de ese inmundo lumpen,aquellas sedimentaciones de oscuras cloacas que aun reptan por tierras de libertad.
Entonces Barack ya podra decir aquella sentencia del Quijote:Los perros ladran Sancho;senal de que avanzamos.
JamesG
What happens when 100% of the world’s HVAC systems are installed as geothermal heating-cooling systems, and causes the earth’s crust to rise 3.5 degrees c??