Do folks in Connecticut think climate change is occurring? Yes they do – and big time, according to the first comprehensive state-by-state polling on climate change.

Data compiled at Stanford University for 46 states (Alaska, Hawaii, North Dakota, Wyoming and the District of Columbia were the exceptions) show a generally high belief that there is climate change, and government should do something about it – in fact several different things – even without the cooperation of other nations.

As for Connecticut – you can see the results here, but in general while we’re up there on the climate change believer front, we’re not at the tippy top of what to do about it. We’re not too thrilled about using regulations or tax breaks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

And we’re definitely not interested in: tax breaks to build nuclear power plants or building more electric vehicles. And – news flash – we really, really, really don’t want to increase consumption taxes on gasoline (25 percent in favor) or electricity (18 percent in favor).

And as for influencing how we vote – climate change, barely registers at 9 percent.

Jan Ellen is CT Mirror's regular freelance Environment and Energy Reporter. As a freelance reporter, her stories have also appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Yale Climate Connections, and elsewhere. She is a former editor at The Hartford Courant, where she handled national politics including coverage of the controversial 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. She was an editor at the Gazette in Colorado Springs and spent more than 20 years as a TV and radio producer at CBS News and CNN in New York and in the Boston broadcast market. In 2013 she was the recipient of a Knight Journalism Fellowship at MIT on energy and climate. She graduated from the University of Michigan and attended Boston University’s graduate film program.

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