Voters in heartland swing states care about the climate too

[xchrom]

http://grist.org/climate-energy/voters-in-heartland-swing-states-care-about-the-climate-too/

It is a conventional wisdom so entrenched in politics that it seems to be almost a law of nature: Swing states are unfriendly terrain for environmental regulation. The Upper Midwest, Appalachia, old Rust Belt strongholds, and the Rocky Mountain West are all viewed as areas where Democrats must soft-pedal their coastal-elite tree-hugging. Heavy industry relies on intense energy use, coal mining is sacrosanct, and farmers and ranchers are influential throughout the heartland.

But according to a new poll [PDF] from Hart Research Associates, conducted on behalf of the League of Conservation Voters, the conventional wisdom is wrong.

Hart polled more than 1,100 voters from 11 states with likely competitive Senate races next year — Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Virginia — and found strong belief in anthropogenic climate change and support for action to address it, even in states carried by Mitt Romney last year.

Sixty-five percent of voters polled say that climate change is a serious problem. Seventy-four percent favor the EPA’s proposed regulations to limit the amount of carbon pollution that power plants can release into the air, with no difference between those in Obama states and Romney states. Hart reports that “48% say they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who opposed new regulations. Only 17% said learning that a candidate opposed the regulations would make them more likely to vote for that candidate.”

[Laelth]

1. Of course they care about the environment too.

As JFK said:

For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's futures. And we are all mortal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_University_speech#Key_excerpts

It's silly to think they don't care about the environment, but they also need jobs and economic security. In the end, I think they vote for jobs and financial security before they vote for the environment. What we need to do is to convince them that being environmentally friendly actually creates more jobs than it destroys.

-Laelth

[riversedge]

2. Will the politicians listen?? My guess is no.