By Ed Chen
All the polls presage an election next week in which Americans vent their anger and frustrations over the state of our economy by punishing the ruling party for policies they believe are to blame.
That gloomy prospect for Democrats is no surprise. With one in ten Americans unable to find work, and millions more struggling to stay in their homes, the ruling party is bound to face voter backlash. That also would be in keeping with historic trends: the party in control of Congress generally suffers big losses in the first mid-term elections after the election of a president of the same party.
But a closer look at recent polls suggests that voters on Tuesday also will be sending a very different message -- a positive one: They strongly support smart, clean energy policies that promote job creation and foster 21st-Century prosperity as well as efforts to combat climate change.
• NRDC Action Fund Poll
• Civil Society Institute Survey
• Pew Research Center for the People and the Press Poll
• Benenson Strategy Group Poll
• New York Times/CBS News Poll
• Additional Polling Data from other News Sources...
Commentary on Polling Data
• Energy and the Election, Part 1: The Name Game
• Energy and the Election, Part 2: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
• Politics of Clean Energy, Part 3: Leaders on Clean Energy Lead in Their Races
The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press reported Wednesday that 87 percent of Americans favor legislation to require utilities to produce more energy from renewable sources, such as solar and wind. And 78 percent favor tougher energy efficiency standards.
Such sentiments also show up in localities around the country. In more than two dozen tight congressional races, Americans are almost 20 percentage points more likely to vote for the candidate who supports clean energy legislation, according to a series of NRDC Action Fund polls released last week.
That mindset undoubtedly will lead voters to re-elect the vast majority of House members who voted for last year’s historic American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES). For poll after poll shows that Americans embrace a clean energy agenda that puts our neighbors back to work, makes our country more secure and creates a healthier future for our children.
And by every poll, California voters will overwhelmingly defeat Proposition 23, a Big Oil-sponsored initiative designed to gut the country’s first-in-the-nation climate change law.
So even before voters cast their ballots, their message to Washington already is resoundingly clear: on clean energy issues and the urgent need to end global warming, the era of gridlock is over.
Chen is the federal communications director at the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund. He spent most of his career as a Washington-based political reporter, first at the Los Angeles Times and, more recently, at Bloomberg News as its senior White House correspondent. From 2009-2010, he was president of the White House Correspondents’ Association.