Poll - Americans Narrowly Reject Gas Tax Holiday Idea - Grist [View All]

The margin was narrow -- 4 percentage points. And 5% of those polled didn't choose sides. But a CBS News - NY Times Poll released Sunday just might signal the moment when Americans began to grasp the intertwined realities of climate, energy and national security.

The poll (PDF) found that 49% of Americans think suspending the gasoline tax this summer is a bad idea, while 45% approve of the plan (see Question 49). If memory serves, this is the first time in at least a generation that the American public expressed a willingness to be taxed more rather than less for energy.

This isn't just economists talking, like the 150 dismal scientists who over the weekend issued a statement calling suspension of the federal tax on gasoline this summer "a bad idea" because, among other reasons, it "would generate major profits for oil companies rather than significantly lowering prices for consumers would encourage people to keep buying costly imported oil and do nothing to encourage conservation." No, this is good old, hard-pressed, subprime-scared Americans.

A week ago, when I posted to Grist about Obama, McCain, Clinton and the gas tax holiday, I didn't imagine that a plurality of my fellow citizens might be ready to embrace my conclusion: that this century's defining energy policy issue is energy prices that tell the truth. Okay, it's just one poll, and a carbon tax isn't necessarily around the next corner. But for someone who has toiled for decades for measures to internalize the external costs of everything from nukes and jet skis to driving and carbon, this poll is sweet indeed.

EDIT

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/5/4/204737/7867