Environmental group: Voters favor power plant plan limiting carbon pollution

With the 2016 election cycle still in the early stages, an environmental group said Thursday that a new poll, which includes likely Iowa voters, shows the electorate won't look kindly on politicians who don't believe in climate change.

The poll, conducted just weeks after the 2014 election, said 67 percent of likely voters said they approved when asked if they favored Obama administration attempts to limit carbon pollution emitted by power plants.

Twenty-eight percent opposed it, according to the poll, which was released by the NRDC Action Fund, an issues advocacy group.

The Obama administration has proposed a rule to require that power plants cut their carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent from 2005 levels by the year 2030.

People in nine 2014 battleground states, including Iowa, were polled about the plan, NRDC Action said. The survey questioned 1,206 voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

Andrew Maxfield, senior vice president, Harstad Strategic Research, said support for the plan cut across party lines, gender and in red and blue states.

The poll was conducted Nov. 18-24.

Officials at NRDC Action say the lesson is that 2016 candidates should heed the threat to the climate from fossil fuels.

Prospective presidential candidates will have a 'hard road” to the White House if they're climate deniers, said Wesley Warren, policy advocacy director for the NRDC Action Fund.

The poll said 85 percent of Democratic primary voters favor the new carbon standards. It also said that 59 percent of Republican women favored the standards.

Wesley pointed to Democrat Gary Peters' victory in the Michigan Senate race as a lesson in what can happen when candidates embrace an environmental agenda.

'Running on this issue is better than running away from it,” he said.

Environmental groups weren't as fortunate in Iowa. Here, Rep. Bruce Braley got significant support from environmental groups but still lost easily to Republican Joni Ernst.

Ernst took flak during the campaign for saying she favored eliminating the Environmental Protection Agency.

Wesley and Maxfield, however, said the Iowa campaign turned on issues other than the environment.

'Climate did not play much role either way,” Maxfield said.

Environmental groups spent heavily on television ads in the Senate race, but many of those ads focused on matters other than environmental issues.

As for 2016, the NRDC did not say what its plans are for Iowa, which hosts the first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses.

A potentially large field of Republicans seeking the GOP nomination is expected to compete in Iowa.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is considered the heavy favorite to win the Democratic nomination, but the extent to which there will be a competitive field is unknown.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who is considering a presidential bid, was just in Iowa. Also, pressure is building on Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to run. She has said several times she is not running for president.