CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Most West Virginians favor solar and wind power and more conservation over coal, oil and nuclear power as a path toward "energy independence," according to new public opinion surveys released Thursday.

West Virginians agree with most Americans that climate change is a pressing problem, and they want alternative energies to receive their fair share of government subsidies, according to the surveys released by a coalition of liberal and environmental groups.

"It's great to know that the majority of West Virginians are in step with the rest of the nation when it comes to energy and climate issues," said Janet Keating, director of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. "Now is the time for our state-level and national political leaders to begin the transition to a new energy future based on clean, renewable sources like wind and solar."

Keating's group joined with the national group CLEAN and the Civil Society Institute, a nonprofit think tank, to release three surveys conducted by the polling firm Opinion Research Corp.

Surveys were conducted across the country and locally in West Virginia and Kentucky to compare national attitudes on energy issues with those in Appalachia's two biggest coal states. In West Virginia, 605 adults were surveyed Sept. 12-17. The margin of error for the West Virginia results is 4 percent.

The surveys were released as national attention has switched from gas prices and offshore oil drilling to mortgage foreclosures and the financial market crisis. At the same time, though, presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain have both opposed mountaintop removal coal mining, but clashed over which candidate will do more to fund government "clean coal" programs.

The survey found that 52 percent of West Virginians think the nation's top energy priority should be seeking "energy independence" by promoting "wind or solar, more conservation, and hybrid or other highly fuel-efficient cars." Thirty-eight percent of West Virginians surveyed favored "more coal-fired power plants, oil from offshore drilling and nuclear power" as the top energy priorities.

"What we see in our survey work is that national and state-level attitudes about energy and climate action vary relatively little, even when you drill down into views of the coal state of West Virginia," said Graham Hueber, senior researcher with Opinion Research Corp. "In fact, in some respects, the residents of West Virginia are even more inclined than other Americans to look beyond coal and other carbon-based fuels to renewable energy sources."

But parts of the survey showed stronger support in West Virginia for coal.

For example, only 44 percent of West Virginians said that they viewed coal as the "power source of yesterday." That compares to 70 percent of those surveyed nationally who agreed with that label.

Nationally, Democrats and Independents are more likely to express negative feelings about coal. But in West Virginia, "coal is a different thing," with Democrats and Independents offering views closer to those of Republicans, the poll found.

And, if given a choice, 18 percent of West Virginians would pick coal-generated power for their homes, compared to just 3 percent nationally.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Most West Virginians favor solar and wind power and more conservation over coal, oil and nuclear power as a path toward "energy independence," according to new public opinion surveys released Thursday.

West Virginians agree with most Americans that climate change is a pressing problem, and they want alternative energies to receive their fair share of government subsidies, according to the surveys released by a coalition of liberal and environmental groups.

"It's great to know that the majority of West Virginians are in step with the rest of the nation when it comes to energy and climate issues," said Janet Keating, director of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. "Now is the time for our state-level and national political leaders to begin the transition to a new energy future based on clean, renewable sources like wind and solar."

Keating's group joined with the national group CLEAN and the Civil Society Institute, a nonprofit think tank, to release three surveys conducted by the polling firm Opinion Research Corp.

Surveys were conducted across the country and locally in West Virginia and Kentucky to compare national attitudes on energy issues with those in Appalachia's two biggest coal states. In West Virginia, 605 adults were surveyed Sept. 12-17. The margin of error for the West Virginia results is 4 percent.

The surveys were released as national attention has switched from gas prices and offshore oil drilling to mortgage foreclosures and the financial market crisis. At the same time, though, presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain have both opposed mountaintop removal coal mining, but clashed over which candidate will do more to fund government "clean coal" programs.

The survey found that 52 percent of West Virginians think the nation's top energy priority should be seeking "energy independence" by promoting "wind or solar, more conservation, and hybrid or other highly fuel-efficient cars." Thirty-eight percent of West Virginians surveyed favored "more coal-fired power plants, oil from offshore drilling and nuclear power" as the top energy priorities.

"What we see in our survey work is that national and state-level attitudes about energy and climate action vary relatively little, even when you drill down into views of the coal state of West Virginia," said Graham Hueber, senior researcher with Opinion Research Corp. "In fact, in some respects, the residents of West Virginia are even more inclined than other Americans to look beyond coal and other carbon-based fuels to renewable energy sources."

But parts of the survey showed stronger support in West Virginia for coal.

For example, only 44 percent of West Virginians said that they viewed coal as the "power source of yesterday." That compares to 70 percent of those surveyed nationally who agreed with that label.

Nationally, Democrats and Independents are more likely to express negative feelings about coal. But in West Virginia, "coal is a different thing," with Democrats and Independents offering views closer to those of Republicans, the poll found.

And, if given a choice, 18 percent of West Virginians would pick coal-generated power for their homes, compared to just 3 percent nationally.

"It's just not realistic to think that coal will not continue to be an important part of our nation's energy supply for many years to come, until the next generation of energy is developed," said Lara Ramsburg, communications director for Gov. Joe Manchin. "So we will continue our focus on developing clean coal technologies while also expanding our renewable portfolio."

But the survey found that 62 percent of West Virginians disagree with Manchin's refusal to try to block Massey Energy from blasting apart a Raleigh County mountain where environmental groups think a wind-power facility should be built. Among those with the strongest feelings on the issue, 15 percent strongly supported Manchin's decision, while 39 percent strongly opposed it.

And, when asked about Manchin's plan to provide nearly $200 million in subsidies to a Marshall County liquid coal plant, 49 percent of West Virginians say that government should provide equivalent support for renewable energy sources.

The poll found that nearly three out of four West Virginians would support a "five-year moratorium on new coal-fired power plants in the United States if there was stepped-up investment in clean, safe, renewable energy - such as wind and solar - and improved home energy-efficiency standards." That's similar to the 73 percent of Americans who would support such a moratorium, the survey found.

More than three out of five West Virginians - a margin similar to the national poll - believe that global warming is a problem and "we have limited time to figure out the solutions to it."

The survey found that 84 percent of West Virginians agree the effects of global warming require "timely and decisive steps to develop renewable energy and that we cannot postpone decisions since there are no perfect options." That's more than the 78 percent nationally who agreed with that statement.

But 13 percent of West Virginians said there is plenty of time to fix the problem, compared to 10 percent nationally.

ONLINE:

Read the surveys.

http://theclean.org/index.html

Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 348-1702.