Health care, cheaper energy seen in survey as highest priorities
By CLAIR JOHNSON Of The Gazette Staff
A poll shows Montana voters rank reliable, affordable energy and affordable health care as top priorities for state government. The two issues outranked job development and increased funding for public schools.
The Montana Conservation Voters Education Fund, which sponsored the poll, released the results Thursday.
The poll was conducted by the Washington, D.C., firm of Belden, Russonello & Stewart, which surveyed 600 likely Montana voters Sept. 6-14. The margin of error is 4.1 percentage points.
The poll also found Montanans strongly favor developing renewable energy such as wind and biofuels over increased coal development.
Theresa Keaveny, executive director of MCVEF, said the group conducted the poll to learn Montanans' views on current energy policy debates.
"Montanans are giving a clear and unambiguous message that they want our policymakers to focus on reliable, affordable energy, coming from renewable sources and efficiencies," she said.
During a conference call, pollster John Russonello said the survey asked voters to rank various issues from 1 to 10, with 10 being a top priority. Developing more reliable and affordable energy tied with making health care more affordable as the top priorities, with 46 percent of voters rating the issues a 10. Better-paying jobs was the next priority, with 39 percent, followed by increasing public school funding, 32 percent.
"We were surprised by the results. It's very significant, very interesting," Russonello said. "The message to take away from this survey is that Montanans hunger for more reliable and affordable energy. These themes are a high priority for Montana voters, along with development of clean and renewable energy."
Russonello said he was surprised at how high renewable energy ranked. The survey found that given a choice of energy policy, 68 percent of voters preferred the development of renewable energy, such as wind, solar and biofuels, while 28 percent of voters favored clean-coal technologies.
Fifty-six percent of voters believe they pay higher energy bills than consumers in other states, and 88 percent agree that investing in energy-efficiency technology will save consumers money.
A large majority of voters, 73 percent, agreed that biofuels are more reliable than oil as an energy source, while 67 percent rejected the idea that wind energy is too expensive or too unreliable to be a major energy source in Montana.
The survey also asked voters who they listen to about energy issues. More Montanans, 40 percent, chose Gov. Brian Schweitzer than any other from a list. Following the governor are conservation groups, at 22 percent; local power companies, 16 percent; and the Chamber of Commerce, 8 percent.
On national energy policy, 66 percent of Montana voters said they would rather reduce the need for oil by requiring better gas mileage for vehicles, while 28 percent of voters favored drilling for oil on public lands.
Reducing pollution linked to global warming also is important to Montana voters, 25 percent of whom ranked it as a top priority. Fifty-eight percent of voters said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who supports limits on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, while 22 percent said they would support a candidate who opposes limits.
An overwhelming majority, 85 percent, wants coalbed methane producers to clean up wastewater; 10 percent said more regulation is unnecessary.
Keaveny said the MCVEF will send the survey report to the governor's office, the state Department of Environmental Quality and other state environmental boards and councils and will make it available to candidates.
MCVEF is a Billings-based nonprofit, nonpartisan group that does research with other conservation organizations to promote clean air and water and open-space policies.
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dbw
wrote on
September 22, 2006 11:18 AM This article states the top priority among those polled was a tie between affordable health care and affordable energy, but the entire article focuses on energy concerns with no subsequent mention of health care. Why the lack of balanced coverage between equally important issues? Check out DBC's latest proposal and decide for yourself if it's going to contribute to more affordable health costs.
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