Nov 9 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Judy Lin The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

In a sign that Californians may be open to funding the global warming fight, a majority of residents support a carbon tax on businesses and individuals, according to a Field Poll released Thursday.

Taxing businesses based on the amount of greenhouse gases they produce was favored by 72 percent of those surveyed. However, support dropped to 53 percent if tax increases drive up the cost of goods and services.

Only a slight majority of Californians favored taxing individuals, but support grew to 65 percent if the money from the tax was dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"Consistently, what comes out of this is that these attitudes and opinions span all geographic areas of the state, as well as demographics and age," said poll director Mark DiCamillo.

"Californians see global warming as a threat to their overall quality of life. And when you nail that down, the things they believe have the most serious threats ... are poor air quality, the snow pack and how that affects the state's water supply," DiCamillo said.

The poll, commissioned by the nonpartisan voter education group Next 10, was based on a statewide telephone survey of 1,003 adults conducted Aug. 10-28 in English and Spanish. It has a sampling error of 3.2 percentage points.

The survey found 70 percent of Californians believe global warming is extremely or very important, compared to 52 percent of Americans who reported the same in a national poll earlier this year.

Despite apprehensions about climate change, 85 percent of Californians agree the state can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while expanding the state economy.

"Californians are bullish about the future, and many feel it can be a leader," DiCamillo said.

While a slight majority was supportive of a carbon tax, DiCamillo said residents responded more favorably to tax credits and a cap-and-trade model, which would allow companies to buy carbon credits when they can't reduce emissions to the state's required amount.

A cap-and-trade model is currently being formulated by the state Air Resources Board. Under Assembly Bill 32, the landmark climate change bill signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last year, the board is working on a framework to help businesses meet tougher air pollution standards.

The law requires Californians to cut greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2020.

No carbon taxes are currently under consideration, but the Air Resources Board has the authority to provide incentives to meet the law's requirements and to impose "carbon fees" on industries that produce the most emissions.

The Field Poll found that a majority of Californians support a broad mix of ideas, including tax incentives, a cap-and-trade system and carbon taxes.

Jason Barbose of Environment California, an environmental advocacy group, said it makes sense for the government to tax air polluters, just as the federal government imposes taxes on oil and chemical industries to clean abandoned hazardous waste sites.

"If the air is a public resource, then no one has a right to pollute the air," Barbose said. "It certainly makes sense to require industries that are putting pollution into the air to pay the cost."

Barbose said that while tax incentives are good, they are just part of the solution. For example, the state has a "million solar roofs" program, which gives homeowners and businesses an average rebate of $6,250 for installing solar systems, according to his group. The average system runs about $20,000.

"You can't just rely on tax credits," Barbose said. "They don't guarantee that we get steep reductions in global warming."

Gino DiCaro, a spokesman for the AB 32 Implementation Group, which represents business interests, said Californians grow weary once they learn the cost of going green.

"You ask anyone about improving global warming and they'll say, 'Sure, we should do that.' But when you attach a dollar amount to the products they buy every day, it changes," DiCaro said.

California is already one of the most energy-efficient states in the country, DiCaro said. The business advocacy group is trying to persuade the Air Resources Board to give industries carbon credits for energy-efficient moves they have already made.

Without the credits, costs will likely rise, he said.