Poll: Voters unwilling to pay to fight global warming
A poll by Rasmussen Reports reveals that "voters still aren't ready to pay much, if anything, to fight global warming."
According to the results, "41% of likely U.S. voters say they are willing to pay nothing more in higher taxes and utility costs annually to generate cleaner energy and fight global warming."
Another 24% are willing to spend only $100 more per year, unchanged from earlier surveys. Twenty-six percent (26%) are ready to spend $300 or more a year to combat global warming, with six percent (6%) who are ready to spend at least $1,000 more annually.
For perspective, $100/year is $8 per month. In other words, at least two thirds of the public is not willing to spend even very small amounts of their income on carbon taxation.
The average American spends $3,052 on energy costs each year. A $100-per-year increase to this bill represents a 3.3-percent increase; $300 is a 10-percent hike.
This latest poll confirms the insights available from a long series of polls conducted in both the United States and Canada over the last couple years. Namely, the majority of the public is not concerned whatsoever about climate change, and most of the remaining fraction that claim they are concerned is unwilling to spend any significant money to address the problem they are supposedly concerned about.