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Between 2008 and 2012 surveys of Americans indicated substantial variation in public views on the existence of global warming. During the period from 2008 to 2010 the number of Americans who felt that global warming was occurring dropped significantly. Then in 2011 and early 2012 acceptance of global warming began to rebound in the United States. This volatility in public opinion regarding global warming has drawn the attention of scholars who have attributed the shifts to a variety of factors including volatile economic conditions, increased political partisanship, media framing and variable weather conditions. In this study we dive deeper into the examination of the role that weather has played in producing the fluctuations in public belief that global warming is happening. Using results from 7 national surveys between 2008 and 2012 we find evidence that Americans regularly cite weather as a key determinant of their positions on the existence of global warming. We also find that actual weather conditions are related to both the likelihood that an individual would cite weather as a primary cause of their views on global warming and that overall acceptance of global warming is significantly affected by experiences with weather. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the policy agenda's greenhouse gas (GHG) intensive countries in Canada and the U.S. It mentions that federal government focused on the risks of climate change. It states that sub-federal jurisdictions focused on enacting policies from emissions trading and carbon taxes to efficiency standards and renewable electricity fuel.

A vast economics literature embraces taxation of the carbon content of fossil fuels as the superior policy approach for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and pursuing other major energy policy goals. However, national government experience around the world suggests that carbon taxes face exceedingly difficult political hurdles. Federal experience in the United States and Canada confirms this pattern. This paper reviews sub-federal policy development among American states and Canadian provinces, a great many of whom have been active in climate policy development. With one notable exception, it concludes that explicit carbon taxation appears to remain a political non-starter. At the same time, states and provinces have been placing indirect carbon prices on fossil fuel use through a wide range of policies over the past fifteen years. These tend to strategically alter labeling, finding different ways to characterize new or expanded policies by avoiding the terms of "tax" and "carbon" in imposing costs. The paper offers a framework for considering such a diverse set of strategies and examines common design features, including direct linkage between cost imposition and fund usage to build political support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A substantial effort has been launched over the past decade to gauge the views of the American public on climate change. Much of this survey research has focused on whether the public believes that human generation of carbon dioxide and related greenhouse gas emissions is in fact triggering changes in the global climate. This in turn has led to surveys that ask citizens to rank climate change as a societal problem in comparison to other issues such as the economy, medical care, and foreign policy. A good deal of this analysis has been conducted by organizations such as the Gallup Poll and the Pew Research Center over a decade or more, allowing for a longitudinal look at how American attitudes on this topic have evolved. Important scholarly work is now in print that examines these key findings and trends across the range of published surveys (Nisbet and Myers 2007; Bannon et al 2007). We know less about public views on various policy options that might mitigate the threat of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, although a number of surveys have been commissioned in recent years that begin to explore public response to policy alternatives. This analysis has examined both responsiveness to competing policy tools as well as citizen "willingness to pay" for various strategies that might serve to reduce emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the relationship between public opinion and policy adoption in state level energy and climate change policy in Michigan and Pennsylvania. It found that the two states not only have many similar demographic qualities but their citizens also have rather comparable views concerning the existence of global warming. In Pennsylvania, there is high levels of concern and strongest support for policies that mandate increases in renewable energy supply. In Michigan, attitudes are quite comparable.

A conference paper about the effectiveness of the advertisement campaign by a group known as Swift Vets for Truth during the 2004 U.S. presidential election. It examines whether or not the advertisements caused the drop in support for John's Kerry's presidential bid. It discusses the views of U.S. voters on political television advertisements. It presents the background of the Swift Boat advertisements.

. Beginning in earnest in the mid 1990s, over one thousand local and state open space preservation and anti-development referendums and initiatives have appeared before voters. These ballot questions have ranged from bond measures to pay for the purchase of land for preservation, to changes in state planning codes. While the results of these votes show that more often than not the proposal succeeds, there are many cases where voters shoot down the anti-development efforts. It is this variation in the outcome of direct democracy efforts to manage sprawl that are at the heart of this research. More specifically, this study seeks to identify the factors that determine the success or failure of ballot measures dealing with growth management.. In this study I find that a number of ballot measure characteristics such as financing mechanisms and preservation targets significantly impact levels of public support. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study attempts to achieve a number of goals regarding state energy policies. First, the paper examines the broad framework of state efforts to manage demand for fossil fuels. This examination explores policies that: (1) attempt to decrease consumption of energy by encouraging conservation; and (2) that seek to increase use of renewable energy sources such as solar or wind power. The study also seeks to offer explanations for variation in state efforts to conserve energy and increase renewable energy use. To accomplish this goal we develop and empirically test a series of hypotheses regarding the determinants of state effort in this area. We find that states vary considerably in their adoption of demand lessening energy policies, and that this variation can be tied to numerous political and environmental conditions. It appears that energy conservation efforts are ramped up in places where the need (poor environmental conditions and high consumption levels) for them is greatest, and that efforts to produce renewable energy sources are greatest where the physical conditions support such endeavors. Yet, state efforts to lessen fossil fuel demand are not merely the product of environmental and physical conditions in the state, but also related to the presence of active environmental communities. Our evidence regarding the relationship between interest group strength and policy adoption provides a general level of support for the effectiveness of group activity in achieving goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the changes in the views of the American public regarding the presence of global warming. Topics discussed include increased volatility is attributed to various factors including economic conditions, increased political polarization, and variation in local temperatures, examining the effects of meteorological conditions related to the global warming, and relationship between various factors including snowfall, drought, and hurricanes are analysed.