Gallup Politics did an Environmental poll in March (see the below chart). The results clearly show that a majority of Republicans and super majority of Democrats favor actions that will lead to higher fuel, food and energy prices. While there are more Republicans that favor opening public lands to exploration and drilling the end results of their support for policies like increasing regulations to reduce “emissions and pollution standards for businesses” means higher costs for all consumers.  

 

 

 

Emissions/greenhouse gasses, e.g. CO2, primarily occur due to water evaporation from our oceans and seas.  When I see that 50% of Republicans want government to “impose mandatory controls on carbon dioxide emissions” I wonder if they understand that we cannot control water evaporation from happening? The EPA recently issued a CO2 emissions ruling that impacts all of our coal fired plants and will cause many to shut down because they cannot meet the new standards. This will drive up energy costs and thereby food costs. 

 

Government spending on hybrid cars, solar and wind power has been a disaster with many of the companies failing to produce a cost effective product, moving their operations to China or going bankrupt. All of these companies are a further drain on our economy because they are not producing cheap and reliable power, they are producing just the opposite, which drives up energy costs and thereby food costs. Government subsidies try to create markets that are simply not there thereby driving up both the costs and prices of in this case hybrid cars, solar and wind power.

 

While Republicans generally favor opening public lands to oil, natural gas and oil shale exploration and production, nearly half want stronger enforcement of environmental regulations and higher emission standards for automobiles. One negates the other.

 

 

The pollster’s state:

 

Gallup has tracked seven of the eight proposals periodically since 2001. Support for all but nuclear energy has declined since last measured in 2007, with the largest drops seen for spending government money to develop alternative sources of fuel for automobiles, strengthening enforcement of environmental regulations, and setting higher auto emissions standards.

 

These declines could be due to Americans' reduced priority in the last several years for preserving the environment at the expense of economic growth, an outgrowth of the economic downturn. However, they are also likely to stem from heightened public concern about government spending and regulations specifically, particularly among Republicans. [My emphasis]

 

I do not find these numbers low enough to keep Republicans, in an election year, from stopping the power grab by the EPA. If this is a campaign issue then the consumer loses. As fuel, food and energy prices rise so will inflation. As I have written in my column "Our Bubble Government" inflation will lead to the burst of both the dollar and debt bubbles. The higher the cost of goods and borrowing the more likely the current recession will last or deepen.