Polling Data Supports CCL’s Policy Laser Talk

The Yale Project for Climate Change Communications recently compiled American opinions on 14 questions covering beliefs, risk perceptions, and policy options for addressing climate change [1]. Remarkably, the results are reported on the national, state, congressional district, and even county level. The results are from a model, not direct polling. However, the results were validated with polling results in 4 states and two metropolitan areas. The model results and polling results are very similar, giving us confidence in the results.

The last question relates directly to CCL’s Carbon Fee and Dividend policy. In the results, roughly twice as many people favor our policy as oppose it —  44% to 25%. About the same time this study was released, a completely separate and independent poll, not modeling, from Stanford and Resources for the Future found a similar ratio: 67% favored while only 31% opposed the federal government imposing a tax on companies for fossil fuels emissions and returning all the revenue “equally” to Americans [2]. While the two studies find large differences in the number of Americans who don’t know — 31% in the Yale study, 2% in the Stanford/RFF study — this probably represents a difference in methodology. Shining through any methodological differences are America’s preference for a revenue-neutral carbon tax returning the money to households.