About two-thirds of New York voters think businesses and homes destroyed by Superstorm Sandy should be rebuilt under stricter building codes, according to a new poll released Wednesday.
Quinnipiac University found 65 percent said those who are rebuilding should be held to a new standard to help to prevent damage from future storms, while 23 percent said property owners should be able to rebuild as they were before and 8 percent said they shouldn’t be able to rebuild at all.
“Most New York State voters say there should be tougher building standards,” Maurice Carroll, Quinnipiac pollster, said in a statement. “Voters on Long Island and in New York City, the areas hardest hit, support stricter codes.”
A total of 74 percent of those polled said they are “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” by climate change, though just 45 percent said they think it is to blame for Sandy.
On other topics:
- Unsurprisingly, New Yorkers were split on hydrofracking, the controversial technique used to help recover natural gas. Forty-four percent said they support fracking, while 42 percent said they were opposed. When asked about Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s decision-making process, 26 percent said he was “carefully evaluating” the issue, 25 percent said he’s “dragging his feet” and 44 percent said they had no opinion.
- Support was high for an increase in the state’s $7.25-an-hour minimum wage. Eighty percent said they support an unspecified increase, compared to 18 percent opposed.
- 51 percent said they support legalizing the use of marijuana. 44 percent said they don’t.
According to Quinnipiac, 1,302 New York voters were polled between Dec. 5 and 10. The poll carries a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.
Below, you can watch Carroll discuss the results, followed by the poll itself:
10 Comments
I’m glad that this poll reflects the deep concern New Yorkers feel about climate change. I hope Governor Cuomo sees that as a mandate to address the root cause of it – greenhouse gas emissions – and pioneers an aggressive renewable energy future for New York State. That would truly make a new New York as he promises.
As for fracking, the concern about climate change should signify that fracking must not go forward. Fracking releases tremendous amounts of methane as well as carbon dioxide in the environment, and thus spells disaster for the climate.
On the specific question of fracking in the poll, it is unfortunate how this poll asks the question. It only mentions environmental concerns about fracking, whereas we know that people are most concerned about the health of their families. In asking the question as it does, the poll does not accurately reflect the concerns of New Yorkers. Yet even with a faulty question, the opposition to fracking holds steadfast.
It’s interesting that the pollsters took the trouble to distinguish the New Yorkers who were most effected by Hurricane Sandy about tougher building standards but did not take the trouble to ask the people in the Southern Tier (those most likely to be effected) if they want fracking in their backyards. Do the 44% of New Yorkers who “support” fracking live in areas to be fracked? Unlikely, because in the Southern Tier most people do not support fracking. Further, no questions were asked about health concerns, impacts on town infrastructure, costs to municipalities, downgrading of property values or whether the tradeoffs involved add up to a true gain.
Is it that hard to design a meangingful poll on crucial questions about fracking facing New Yorkers?
Unsurprisingly, New Yorkers were split on hydrofracking, the controversial technique used to help recover natural gas. Forty-four percent said they support fracking, while 42 percent said they were opposed. When asked about Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s decision-making process, 26 percent said he was “carefully evaluating” the issue, 25 percent said he’s “dragging his feet” and 44 percent said they had no opinion.
Quinnipiac needs to ask more detailed questions on hydrofracking to get more meaningful results. They could ask if people thought jobs created by the gas industry would be offset by displacing jobs in existing industries, such as agriculture and tourism. They could ask if people felt that creating jobs was worth damaging the environment, given that some of the 78% saying it would create jobs were also among the 50% who thought it would damage the environment. Geographic information would be helpful as well. Maybe downstate voters, who think they will get cheaper methane, are willing to sacrifice the environment upstate to get it.
Quinnipiac can also broaden its range of questions regarding the effects. Health effects have been discussed often of late, because of the three outside experts and DOH reviewing the DEC’s report. Given the recent action of AG Schneiderman and several other attorneys general, the topic of leaked atmospheric methane is back in the news, as well as the general connection between fossil fuel use and climate change/increased severe weather.
New Yorkers who live on the shale do not want to be fracked. A Pulse Opinion Research poll conducted late in 2011 concluded that Seven out of ten residents are not in favor of living with shale gas extraction.
The Q poll poses a question that offers a false choice; pitting the environment against the economy. Fracking will only serve to exacerbate climate change, when the extraction process is factored in fracked shale gas is dirtier than coal and the leaking infrastructure used to transport the gas will significantly increase co2 levels. Furthermore, it seems that the ultimate goal of the industry is to ship the gas overseas, in order to ship, the gas must be cooled to a liquid form (LNG), and that process coupled with the energy that will be used to keep the gas cooled during shipping make an already bad deal for the climate and our economy into a tremendous boondoggle for both..
We can grow a vibrant economic future in NY and protect our environment and the climate by mandating new construction be built with renewable energy and by making our state a manufacturing center for renewable and sustainable energy products.
How many of those surveyed were from areas either precluded from fracking by the state like NYC and its watershed or where there is no shale to frack? I am not suggesting that those people don’t care if it is not happening where they are as much as they have little reason to learn what all the risks are if they are not going to experience them.
Regarding the poll question comparing drilling for gas as an economic benefit or not drilling due to environmental harm, the question is problematic. Regarding economic benefits, there is no mention that most jobs constructing the wells go to out of state workers, there are not many maintenance jobs, and those jobs will end when the wells dry up. There are other industries, such as tourism, which may lose jobs due to drilling. Regarding problems with fracking, a mention of the possible types of damage would be helpful to people in answering that question.
Studies have found and cases are known of fracking contaminating ground water. Millions of gallons of precious fresh water are used in the process each time a well is fracked. Greenhouse gas methane and radioactive radon are released into the air and both public and private lands are decimated by the wells, reducing property values to nothing and destroying public recreation areas. The chemicals, many unknown as the industry claims proprietary privilege thanks to the Halliburton loophole, are toxic and cause health problems in humans and animals.
If the poll is going to ask questions, the facts should be offered to the people taking the poll.
If New Yorkers on Long Island and in New York City want less damage from storms, they should oppose fracking. If New York goes head first into destroying our society and environment by fracking for natural gas, we will doom ourselves to storms made worse by climate change. Natural gas is a fossil fuel, and its use with further climate change. It makes far more sense to skip building infrastructure for natural gas, and move directly to infrastructure for renewable sources of energy. We need to think ling-term.
Further, New Yorkers on Long Island and in New York City should not feel immune from fracking just because the NYC watershed would be off limits from fracking. As soon as the gas runs out in other parts of the State, Big Oil will demand to drill in the NYC watershed, too. They used to think these gas deposits were not worth going after. Not they see accessing them as imperative. The addiction fossil fuels in serious. For everyone’s future, New York should ban fracking.
Governor Cuomo’s high approval rating will slip whether or not he allows fracking. If he bans it, some will say he doesn’t support economic growth and job creation. But there are some gaping holes in that argument. Very few New Yorkers are trained to work on fracking rigs. Those jobs will go to workers from out-of-state. As for economic growth, fracking will not suffice. A statewide renewable energy program would do better. It is shameful that the Governor didn’t put his full weight behind the Solar Jobs Act, which would create more NY jobs than fracking, while addressing climate change.
New Yorkers are not split on climate change. The poll indicates that 74% of us are concerned about the issue. Governor Cuomo stepped into uncharted waters acknowledging that Hurricane Sandy was given strength by climate change. But he didn’t go far enough. He could have made it abundantly clear that he listens to scientists, who trace climate change back to greenhouse gases from fossil fuel use. Instead, he’s still considering allowing fracking. It’s a big mistake for the climate and our communities.
As stated above, the people that were polled, do they live in the areas that will be affected by fracking? And how many people that had no opinion even know what fracking is? Because if they were uneducated about it, then of course they would have no opinion. However. people that are educated about it and find out what the health issues are, the property issues are, the pollution issues are, the truck traffic and road issues are, the disposal of waste issues are etc, THEY DON’T WANT FRACKING IN NY!This poll doesn’t address many of the issues and as such people can’t answer Both Long Island people and NYC people are in densely populated areas. If a gas line explodes (which one is being proposed to build in Manhattan) what horrors will we see then? Also, if the waste “brine” is used on the roads of Long Islnad, which is being proposed in towns that seek relief from budgetary constraints because the gas companies are giving the brine away( the gas companies then don’t have to dispose of it), what will happen to the water in Long Island wherever people have their own wells? How about what animals will drink from the run off? This brine will be packed with hazardous chemicals and possible radiation!
As stated above, the people that were polled, do they live in the areas that will be affected by fracking? And how many people that had no opinion even know what fracking is? Because if they were uneducated about it, then of course they would have no opinion. However. people that are educated about it and find out what the health issues are, the property issues are, the pollution issues are, the truck traffic and road issues are, the disposal of waste issues are etc, THEY DON’T WANT FRACKING IN NY!This poll doesn’t address many of the issues and as such people can’t answer Both Long Island people and NYC people are in densely populated areas. If a gas line explodes (which one is being proposed to build in Manhattan) what horrors will we see then? Also, if the waste “brine” is used to de-ice the roads of Long Island, which is being proposed in towns that seek relief from budgetary constraints because the gas companies are giving the brine away( the gas companies then don’t have to dispose of it), what will happen to the water in Long Island wherever people have their own wells? How about what animals will drink from the run off? This brine will be packed with hazardous chemicals and possible radiation!