There was a Pew poll released earlier this week that provides some of the most encouraging news I’ve seen in a while in terms of the political feasibility of making sound energy policy. The news comes in a smart question that asks people not about a specific policy (my view is that the overwhelming majority of people don’t really have views about policy specifics) but about a broad thematic issue of priorities:
That appears to me to indicate that proponents of carbon pricing ought to get franker in their public discussion of their ideas. Making polluters pay will make dirty energy more expensive, but this is necessary to protect the environment and will create the economic incentives necessary to spur innovation in clean energy and energy-saving technologies.