The congressional Republicans have made it very clear that they are willing to sacrifice the environment to protect giant corporations (especially the huge oil, gas, coal, and energy-producing corporations). They oppose the president's new restrictions on energy pollution, continue to protect the huge subsidies granted to those corporations (many of whom don't pay any taxes on billions in profits), and continue to demand substantial cuts in EPA funding.
This is just one more area in which they are out-of-step with most Americans. The Gallup Poll recently asked Americans if energy development was more important (even if it harmed the environment) or if protecting the environment was more important (even if it hurt energy development). Americans preferred protecting the environment by an 11 point gap -- and the only group preferring to protect the energy corporations was the Republican Party. Both Independents and Democrats said protecting the environment was more important.
This is one more area (among many) that could hurt the Republicans in this coming election.
The survey was taken between March 6th and 9th of a random national sample of 1,048 adults, and has a 4 point margin of error.
