The next Election Day is Nov. 7.

Only about 3 percent of US voters in recent exit polls said the environment was the most important issue to them in casting their ballots, according to Karlyn Bowman, who tracks public opinion polling for the American Enterprise Institute.

That puts it far behind the hot-button issue of abortion, which between 9 percent and 13 percent of US voters said was most important to them.

This may be because Americans reckon the question about what the country wants in terms of the environment has long ago been settled, Bowman said.

"When we (in the United States) agreed in the late 1960s and early 1970s that we wanted a clean and healthful environment and we wanted to spend a lot of money to get one, once that consensus was reached at the national level, most Americans pulled away from the debate," she said.

While Americans accept the need to support a clean environment, each US resident uses about twice as much energy as the typical German, Japanese or Briton and emits roughly as much carbon, according to the Sierra Club.

With 5 percent of the world's population, the United States uses 25 percent of the world's oil and produces 25 percent of the world's carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.

Much of the American appetite for energy is focused on transportation, where individuals are more likely to drive energy-inefficient vehicles for longer distances than in other developed countries.

ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS IS LOCAL

Bowman said the environment has lost its potency as a national issue, but still mobilizes Americans in state and local races.

That mobilization is clear as the United States counts down to the Nov. 7 election for Congress and other offices.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican who has broken with the Republican Bush administration on environmental issues, has pushed for special state vehicle pollution standards, a bond issue meant to assure safe water and beaches, and for a sharp reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Nearly 400 Green Party candidates are on US ballots in 2006, and so far Greens have won 24 out of the 62 elections where they had candidates around the country, according to the greens.org Web site. However, those winners are all in local offices, ranging from the Sebastopol, California, city council, to the board of supervisors in Douglas County, Wisconsin.

Most Americans do consider the environment important, according to Michael Bell, an environmental sociologist at the University of Wisconsin. Bell noted polling since 1983 shows a consistent high level of public support for environmental issues.

But he said few politicians make this a highlight of their campaigns, so voters leaving the polling booth are unlikely to list the environment as the reason they cast a ballot for a particular candidate, Bell said.

He also acknowledged that the environmental message is often one of "gloom and doom" -- a strategic mistake, in Bell's view.

"If to be an environmentalist is to put on a hair shirt every day, to force yourself at every second of the day to ask, 'Am I making the environmentally right decision?'... it's going to be rather overwhelming to people," Bell said.

The issue resonates with voters but not with business leaders, Bell said, adding, "That maybe is an important factor in understanding why it doesn't seem to resonate with politicians, whose interests often reflect those of business."