While congressional Republicans plan to attack Environmental Protection Agency regulations often over the next two years, GOP voters’ opinions on the agency’s climate change agenda are split, according to a new analysis.
Forty-four percent of Republican voters support a proposed EPA regulation to limit carbon emissions from power plants, and 56 percent back the idea of regulation carbon in general, the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication said.
Schisms within the party led to varying views on climate change and what should be done to address it.
So-called “liberal” and moderate Republicans, who comprise 30 percent of the respondents, were most likely to believe climate change was occurring — 68 percent for liberal Republicans, 62 percent for moderates. Liberal and moderate Republicans were also most supportive of the power plant regulation, at 73 percent and 62 percent, respectively.
The bulk of the party — conservatives, accounting for 52 percent — wasn’t as keen on climate change or efforts to slow it. Thirty-eight percent of conservatives thought climate change was happening, 54 percent wanted to regulate carbon pollution, but just 40 percent thought the power plant proposal was a good idea.
Tea Party Republicans, who made up 18 percent of respondents, were least likely to believe global warming was real (29 percent), to back regulation of carbon pollution (36 percent) and to support the EPA power plant proposal (23 percent).
A majority of liberal (73 percent), moderate (77 percent) and conservative (63 percent) Republicans supported offering rebates for people who buy energy-efficient cars or solar panels, compared with 46 percent of Tea Party Republicans.
The study pools together polling results from six surveys of American adults conducted since March 2012. The views of all Republicans had a 2 percent margin of error.
