[The Vector] Survey Says Tea Party and Independent Voters Differ Significantly on Clean Energy
An opinion poll from Civil Society Institute (CSI) said this week that key poll results reveal Tea Party members have quite different views on clean energy than Independents. The CSI poll is fully independent and not financed, supported, commissioned, conducted or released by any company, group, candidate or party.
Key findings include:
Independents are more than twice as likely as Tea Party members to see global warming as a problem (62% vs 27%).
Tea Party members are more than twice as likely as Independents (34% vs 15%) to see no need for leadership on global warming.
70% of Independents but only 55% of Tea Party supporters agree that the US needs to be a clean energy jobs and technology leader.
75% of Independents but only 42% of Tea Party supporters agree that smarter energy choices are key to creating new jobs and a future that is healthier.
78% of Independents but only 55% of Tea Party supporters agree that a sound energy policy is central to solving some of the most urgent problems facing the country, including energy security.
74% of Independents but only 47% of Tea Partiers support the idea of a national energy strategy based on phasing out carbon-based energy sources, and phasing in new cleaner sources.
86% of Independents but only 52% of Tea Party supporters think it is time for leaders of our national to think in terms of the “new industrial revolution” for green energy.
CSI Senior Researcher Graham Heuber said in a press release on October 26th, “These findings point to a greater diversity of views among Tea Party supporters and Independents than is widely assumed to be the case, and this has major implications for the 2010 elections and future elections. What we are seeing here is a common mistake with which pollsters are all too familiar: the tendency on the part of the media and others to simplify the story by lumping together groups rather than being careful to parse out the specific points on which they actually differ, and sometimes dramatically so.”
The only poll items that garnered like-minded response was that about 68% of Independents and 68% of Tea Party supporters see the U.S. as weak or very weak on practical problem-solving solutions and leadership.
