Voters prioritize energy independence over climate change: Poll

More than half of registered voters rate making America energy independent higher than the fight for climate change, according to a new poll by Napolitan News Service. 

According to the poll, 57% of voters hold that view, while 39% take the opposite position. The poll found a wide divide between political parties, with 84% of Republicans prioritizing American energy independence over the fight for climate change and 31% of Democrats putting American energy first. Only 14% of Republicans polled said fighting climate change is more important, whereas 65% of Democrats said it is. 

The poll also found that 59% of voters say reducing the cost of electricity and improving the reliability of the grid and natural gas supply should take precedence over fighting climate change. Democrats, the poll found, were evenly divided on the issue, while Republicans overwhelmingly placed energy cost and security over fighting climate change. 

Providing clean air and water for everyone also came out ahead of fighting climate change for 68% of voters, according to the poll. 

This survey of 1,000 registered voters was conducted online by Scott Rasmussen on March 18-19. Field work for the survey was conducted by RMG Research, Inc. Certain quotas were applied, and the sample was lightly weighted by geography, gender, age, race, education, internet usage, and political party to reasonably reflect the nation’s population of registered voters. Other variables were reviewed to ensure that the final sample is representative of that population. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is +/- 3.1 percentage points.