By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — Two-thirds of Arkansans say the science of global warming is unproven and more than half oppose a clean energy bill currently before Congress, according to a new poll.

The poll, commissioned by the Arkansas News Bureau/Stephens Media, also found that a majority of Arkansans oppose legislation that would allow illegal immigrants to live in the United States and seek citizenship, and just under half favor the Tea Party.

Hal Bass, a political science professor at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, said the results of the poll “reflect a pretty high level of anxiety and frustration about current conditions.”

“These are all connected to the same general frustration … and I think it’s primarily driven by perceptions of a lagging economy,” he said.

Washington, D.C.-based Mason-Dixon surveyed 625 registered voters statewide by telephone Monday through Wednesday. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

On the question of whether participants felt global warming was a scientifically established reality, 66 percent said it was unproven, 25 percent said it was a reality and 9 percent said they did not know.

“I think the results show a distrust for authority in general and scientific authority in particular,” Bass said.

On whether they support cap-and-trade, which is in the clean-energy bill now before Congress, 55 percent said they oppose the legislation, 22 percent said they support it and 23 percent they are undecided.

J. Brad Coker, managing partner of Mason-Dixon, said he’s not surprised by the poll results, and that they reflect answers to similar questions in other states.

He also said he thinks the answers to the global-warming question and the cap-and-trade question are intertwined.

“The economy overrides environmental issues,” he said. “People want to work and if putting environmental restrictions is going to cause places to go out of business or move overseas, they’re not necessarily willing to buy the entire argument,” he said.

Coker said many opponents of global warming point to e-mails between scientists at the Climate Research Unit in the United Kingdom that, when made public, called into question the accuracy of some scientists’ work supporting the existence of global warming.

However, factcheck.org notes there have been many other scientific studies supporting global warming.

Under cap-and-trade, businesses would be restricted as to how much carbon dioxide they could emit into the atmosphere (cap) but would be allowed to buy and swap credits to expel more if their company must do so (trade).

Critics see the measure as little more than an energy tax they say will drive up business and consumer expenses, hurting rural states like Arkansas as a result, and will cost jobs.

Bass noted that Arkansans are hesitant to embrace cap-and-trade because energy is a big part of the state’s economy, with oil in the south and natural gas in the north.

“We’re in a region where energy costs have traditionally been low and energy resources have been readily available and I think we’re in a time of transition,” he said. “It puts us in a little different place in terms of perspective compared to folks in other parts of the country.”

On immigration, poll participants were asked if they support or oppose immigration-reform legislation that would allow all of those who are living in the United States without legal status to be given the opportunity to stay and apply for citizenship.

Fifty-three percent of those polled said they opposed the legislation, 28 percent said they supported it and 19 percent said they were undecided.

“These numbers are fairly consistent with other polls in other states. Arkansas is not different than the rest of the country on this issue,” Coker said.

“For a state that does not have a really large Hispanic voting population, I would say it’s on par with what you would find if you did a poll in Tennessee, Louisiana or Oklahoma.”

Participants in the poll also were asked their opinion of the Tea Party, a conservative, nationwide grassroots movement.

Forty-six percent said they had a favorable opinion, 18 percent had an unfavorable opinion and 36 percent had no opinion.

Coker said the Tea Party movement “reflects the mood” of many voters who are concerned about big government and want less taxes and less spending.

“As a kind of visceral, emotional expression of frustration with the status quo, I think bad economic times, or difficult economic times, do tend to correlate with dissatisfaction with the system,” he said.