A new Gallup poll released last week should send cold chills up the spines of those promoting global warming legislation. For the first time in Gallup’s 25-years of asking Americans about the trade-off between environmental protection and economic growth, a majority says the economy should be a the top priority, even at the expense of environmental protections. Here’s the question: “With which one of these statements about the environment and the economy do you most agree: protection of the environment should be given priority, even at the risk of curbing economic growth (or) economic growth should be given priority even if the environment suffers to some extent?” Gallup reports it first started asking about the “economy versus environment tradeoff” in 1984, finding then that over 60 percent picked the environmental option. Before last week’s results, the percentage of Americans choosing the environment only slipped below 50 percent in 2003-2004. But even then, the percent choosing the environment was still higher. The partisan pattern in these numbers is also revealing. Not surprisingly self-identified Republicans choose the economic growth option by a large margin (64 percent-31 percent), while independents pick the economy by a narrower margin (50 percent-42 percent). Democrats, on the other hand, side with protecting the environment 50 percent-44 percent — a spread that implies Democrats face significant ideological cross pressure on this topic. “This finding suggests that the economic crisis may present a real philosophical dilemma to those who ordinarily are strongly supportive of environmental protection, but who may back off in the face of the perceived need to restore economic growth,” Gallup writes. This can’t be good news for cap-and-trade fans, hoping for quick legislative action in this Congress. Democrats in states hard hit by the costs included in the president’s climate change proposal may find it difficult to support legislation that hits their constituents’ pocketbooks during an economic downturn. Read the full Gallup report here.
