Western voters are more likely to support congressional candidates willing to protect nature and public lands, a new poll finds.
But a majority of those polled also favor energy development — of solar and wind, in particular — within limits, according to the survey commissioned as part of Colorado College’s annual State of the Rockies project.
Fewer than 20 percent of respondents said a congressional candidate’s stance on air, land and water conservation was inconsequential in their voting decisions.
A bipartisan team — Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Mertz & Associates and Public Opinion Strategies — polled 2,400 registered voters in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and Montana by telephone Jan. 7-13. The results have a 2.9 percent margin of error.
“Westerners believe there’s a time and place for everything and that there are some places that are so important they ought to be protected permanently,” poll director Lori Weigel said. “They don’t shut the door on energy development. But they want it within reason.”
When it comes to oil and gas development, 54 percent of the voters surveyed said they were more likely to support candidates who want to reduce government red tape so that there could be more oil and gas development. At the same time, 65 percent favored use of leasing master plans to try to balance oil and gas drilling on public land with protection of land for wildlife and recreation.
A preference for renewable energy was clear: 72 percent of respondents said they are more likely to vote for candidates who promote use of wind and solar power. And 54 percent said they are less likely to support a candidate who tries to stop taxpayer support for solar and wind energy companies.
An ambivalence toward oil and gas drilling emerged — especially in Colorado. About 55 percent of the voters surveyed in Colorado said that local government should be allowed to regulate both the location and the extent of hydraulic fracturing to extract oil and gas. Only 22 percent of voters said state agencies should do the regulation. Another 20 percent were undecided.
Across the six states, 52 percent of those polled supported drilling on some public lands — as long as environmentally sensitive areas are permanently protected. While 26 percent said drilling on public lands should be strictly limited, only 18 percent said public lands should be generally open to oil and gas drilling.
Pristine natural resources were seen as essential for the economy. The poll found overwhelming agreement that the closure of national parks last fall, prompted by the federal government’s partial shutdown, economically harmed Western communities.
And more than two-thirds of the voters said they are more likely to support candidates who increase protection for public lands such as national forests, poll results show.
Similarly, 68 percent favored candidates who would maintain tax incentives for landowners who keep their land as working farms or in a natural state.
Conversely, more than two-thirds of the voters said they are less likely to vote for a candidate who supports selling public lands, such as national forests, to reduce budget deficits. And poll results also show that 67 percent of those surveyed were less likely to vote for candidates who try to cut funding for government agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service.
Bruce Finley: 303-954-1700, bfinley@denverpost.com or twitter.com/finleybruce
