A majority of Americans say they are more likely to support political candidates who promise to take action against climate change, according to a new poll. Conducted by the The New York Times, Stanford University and non-profit environmental research group Resources for the Future, the poll could prove important to candidates in the 2016 election. Overall, two-thirds of respondents, including 48 percent of Republicans, said that they would support candidates who promise to do something about climate change, the New York Times reported. Conversely, two-thirds of respondents said that they were less likely to vote for candidates who said that climate change was a hoax. Candidates who take the "I am not a scientist" route and claim that they are not qualified to have an opinion on global warming also fared poorly, with only 27 percent of Americans more likely to vote for them.
As for specific actions, 78 percent of Americans think the federal government should curb the release of greenhouse gases and 80 percent think that companies should get tax breaks for developing clean energy. Increasing taxes on electricity and gasoline were less popular, with only 25 percent and 36 percent of Americans supporting them respectively, according to the Times.
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