North Carolinians want Duke Energy to pay for cleanup
Published March 13, 2014
by Public Policy Polling, March 12, 2014.
PPP's monthly North Carolina poll finds overwhelming bipartisan agreement that Duke Energy- and not anyone else- should pay for the clean up from the recent coal ash spill. 79% think the company should bear the cost rather than taxpayers or customers to only 12% who disagree. There's also no divide along party lines at all on the issues- independents (81/9), Republicans (79/11), and Democrats (79/14) all think the onus should fall on Duke. This episode is having a pretty negative overall impact on Duke's image in the state too- only 26% of voters have a favorable opinion of the company overall to 52% with an unfavorable one.
“It’s pretty unusual in North Carolina these days to find a hot button issue that Democrats and Republicans are completely in agreement about,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “But there’s broad consensus that this should be Duke Energy’s mess to clean up and no one else’s.”
This issue is proving to be problematic for Pat McCrory. Only 30% of voters say they approve of the way he's handled the coal ash issue to 44% who disapprove. His overall approval numbers are in line with what we and most other pollsters have found recently- 40% approve of the job he's doing to 47% who disapprove.
The General Assembly has a 17/61 overall approval rating. With Republicans in control of that body you'd think that qualifies as good news for Democrats. But it turns out that Democrats (33/51 favorability) and Republicans (33/52) in the legislature are almost identically unpopular- voter unhappiness is pretty steady with both parties. Democrats do lead the generic legislative ballot this month 45/42, but the way the boundaries are drawn up that equates to modest potential gains for them this fall at best.
Hillary Clinton continues to hold small leads over the leading potential Republican candidates in the state. Jeb Bush comes closest to her at 47/46 and she leads Chris Christie 46/42, Rand Paul 49/43, and Mike Huckabee 49/42.
PPP surveyed 884 registered voters from March 6th to 9th, including 392 Republican primary voters. The margin of error for the overall survey is +/- 3.3%, and for the Republicans it’s +/-5.0%. 80% of interviews for the poll were conducted over the phone with 20% interviewed over the internet to reach respondents who don’t have landline telephones.
