Monday, August 01, 2011
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
by Josh Richman, The Oakland Tribune, Calif.
Environmental disasters seem to have cooled Californians' support for nuclear power but not for offshore oil drilling, according to the latest survey by the Public Policy Institute of California.
The poll generally shows Californians remain green-minded, showing substantial support for forcing automakers to improve fuel efficiency; for federal funding for renewable energy sources; and for the goals of the state's landmark greenhouse-gas emissions law.
But Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown disaster -- caused by March's cataclysmic earthquake and tsunami, and widely seen as the world's worst nuclear accident since 1986's Chernobyl blast -- apparently has sapped Californians' support for building new power plants.
The poll found 65 percent of Californians now oppose building more plants while 30 percent are in favor, the lowest level of support since PPIC began asking the question in 2001 and a 14-point drop since one year ago.
And the Deepwater Horizon disaster, an April 2010 explosion followed by three months of uncontrolled oil flow into the Gulf of Mexico, the nation's worst offshore spill, no longer curbs Californians' growing support for more offshore drilling, likely driven by concern over high gas prices.
The poll found 46 percent of Californians favor more drilling -- a 12-point increase since one year ago -- while 49 percent are opposed. Republicans, at 71 percent, are twice as likely as Democrats, at 35 percent, to support more drilling; 40 percent of independent voters support it. Residents of the Central Valley, Orange and San Diego counties, and the Inland Empire were much more likely to support offshore drilling than those in Los Angeles or the Bay Area.
Meanwhile, 76 percent of adults say high gas prices have caused financial hardship for their households.
Unlike Californians' consistently solid support over the long haul for renewable energy and improved fuel efficiency standards for the U.S. auto industry, support for nuclear power and oil drilling "are more volatile -- they move around with news events, and in the case of oil drilling, with gas prices," PPIC President and CEO Mark Baldassare said.
Indeed, as the Obama Administration rolled out new fuel-efficiency standards Friday, 84 percent of Californians favor significantly tighter standards, the poll found, including 90 percent of Democrats, 81 percent of independents and 76 percent of Republicans.
And 80 percent of Californians support having more federal funding to develop renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and hydrogen technology, while 77 percent support the state's policy requiring that a third of the state's electricity come from such sources by 2020 -- unless that leads to higher electricity bills, in which case only 46 percent favor it.
"Seventy-seven percent support for the renewable energy portfolio shows that this policy is a floor," Environment California legislative director Dan Jacobson responded. "California should look to moving the state to 100 percent clean energy by 2040."
AB 32, the state's landmark greenhouse-gas emissions reduction law, survived a rollback from the failed Proposition 23 in November, and the new poll shows 67 percent of Californians still support the law's goal of rolling emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020; 21 percent are opposed and 11 percent are undecided.
Most Californians see global warming as a serious threat to the state's future economy, with 47 percent saying it's very serious and 28 percent saying it's somewhat serious.
And 57 percent of Californians believe that the state should make its own policies, separate from the federal government's, to address global warming. Most -- 58 percent -- say California should act now to reduce emissions, while 38 percent prefer to wait until the economy and job situation improve. Nearly half say state action would result in more jobs and 23 percent say it would result in fewer, while 20 percent foresee no change in employment.
But while an overwhelming 79 percent of residents favor government regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, just over half -- 54 percent -- favor the kind of cap-and-trade system under development in California, with 36 percent opposed; 60 percent favor a carbon tax.
David Allgood, the California League of Conservation Voters' Southern California director, said the poll shows that "people when they're not emotional about these issues tend to agree with our point of view." Things like conservation, renewable energy and strict pollution controls are "very strongly supported by California voters -- we basically lead the nation because they've taken the longer view time after time."
Allgood said past experience shows voters will support reforms that cost them money if they've been well-educated on how the money will be spent and how their investment will create jobs and other economic benefits in the future.
Said Jacobson: "Californians see the path to getting out of our economic recession as one where we have clean cars, clean energy, and clean jobs."
Findings are based on a survey of 2,504 adult Californians reached by landline and cell phones from July 5 through 19, with a 3-point margin of error.
Copyright (c) 2011, The Oakland Tribune, Calif.
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