Poll finds growing disenchantment with Bush environmental policy
A new poll finds a rise in the number of people who think President Bush is not doing enough to protect the environment — 56 percent, according to a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg survey, up from 41 percent in 2001. Most want more action on environmental problems, and by a more than two-to-one margin, they think Democrats in Congress are more likely to give it to them. The number who think global warming is a serious problem rose to over 70 percent, and 58 percent think Bush isn’t doing enough about it. Unsurprisingly, Bush’s support on environmental policy is sharply higher among Republicans, and higher in the South than in the East and West. Support for mandatory government regulations is low — under 10 percent support raising vehicle fuel-efficiency standards, and just 11 percent support carbon-emissions caps — but Americans are gung-ho about research into and subsidies for new technologies, including wind and solar. So Americans think global warming’s a problem, but don’t want to do anything about it but funnel pork to industry, and yet they disapprove of Bush’s policy. Why?
