Poll taps Mainers on climate

Nearly 70 percent of Mainers agree with the majority of the scientific community that human actions are changing the planet’s climate, according to poll results released Wednesday by the Natural Resources Council of Maine.

The state’s largest environmental lobbying group hired a Portland firm to poll 400 likely voters in February in hopes of influencing Maine’s climate policy.

Last year, Gov. John Baldacci signed a law that set state goals for reducing the greenhouse gasses from power plants and automobiles, which scientists blame for upsetting the world’s climate systems.

Under both Clinton and Bush, the federal government has declined to participate in an international treaty to reduce greenhouse gasses, called the Kyoto Protocol. So in recent years, many states have taken matters into their own hands.

A group including lawmakers as well as environmental and industry lobbyists is currently working out the details of how Maine will achieve its ambitious goals – a 75 percent greenhouse gas reduction in the long term with lower benchmarks in 2010 and 2020.

Scientific models predict that Maine, which lies near a climate boundary, could see major changes in its forests and wildlife, in addition to flooding along its coastline, if global warming continues unabated.

The NRCM poll asked Maine voters about several specific policies to address the creation of greenhouse gasses.

A majority of respondents said that Congress should take some action to prevent global warming. A bill seeking to regulate the production of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that is presently not addressed by federal law, was favored by about 75 percent of voters polled. The bill, which failed in Congress last year despite bipartisan support including from Maine’s Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, drew at least 67 percent support from all sectors – Republicans, Democrats, men, women and residents of all parts of the state.

NRCM’s poll also indicated that a slight majority of Maine voters would support a focus on renewable energy such as wind power, as well as stricter standards for automobile emissions and appliance efficiency.

All of the poll’s results have a margin of error of about 5 percentage points. The poll results can be viewed in their entirety at the NRCM Web site: www.maineenvironment.org