Craig Miller/KQED

The majority of Americans want the government to take action on climate change, but the majority is shrinking.

Two polls in as many weeks find that the majority of Americans support government policies to shift to cleaner energy. According to the first, conducted by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, nearly three-out-of-four Americans (72%) think climate change should be a priority for Congress, and 70% want corporations and industry to do more to address climate change.

The second, conducted by Stanford, finds that though they’re still a majority, the proportion of Americans who support climate change policies, versus those who don’t, has dropped by ten percentage points since 2010.

Despite the diminishing support, social psychologist Jon Krosnick, who directed the Stanford poll, says politicians stand to benefit by addressing climate change head-on.

“Our analysis suggests Obama did win votes from McCain on the issue in 2008,” Krosnick told me. “Climate change opinions are partly driving people in the direction of the president, but not as much as they would if he came out more strongly on the issue, talking more frequently not just about green jobs, but also saying, ‘Climate change is happening, we should do something about it, and we can.’”

Krosnick says political rhetoric is partially to blame for the change. Even though the majority of people in both parties want government to take action, the opinions candidates expressed in the Republican primaries didn’t reflect that.

“That hypothesis that public opinion would drive what candidates say doesn’t seem to be happening,” Krosnick said. Instead, the Republican candidates, who were unanimous in their opposition to taking action on climate change, seem to have swayed some people’s opinions. “After hearing such unanimity, it pushes people in a skeptical direction.”

One usual suspect that’s not a factor: the economy. Support for climate change policies fell more in states with good economies, than in states that are still struggling. Plus Krosnick adds, the timing wouldn’t make sense if the economy was to blame. “The notion that the economy has trumped climate change, there’s really no evidence of it at all. It would be hard to make the case that economy has gotten worse in the past two years, and yet support has declined.”

A couple things the Stanford survey finds probably won’t do politicians any good: supporting nuclear power (53% of people polled oppose tax breaks to build nuclear power plants, up from 49%) and increasing taxes (73% oppose increasing gasoline taxes; 80% oppose increasing electricity taxes).

By Alison van Diggelen

President Obama made a strong State of the Union commitment not to walk away from the promise of clean energy. Was it a shrewd long-term strategy or a political liability that will result in even more “Solyndras” here in California?

On the one hand, Obama’s clean energy focus has helped expand the clean energy job market, into a sector with more than 2.7 million jobs, with investments in smart power grid, energy efficiency, electric cars and renewable power. In 2011, the federal clean energy push led to a remarkable $56 billion investment in the sector, surpassing even China’s.

These investments have helped boost California’s green economy, particularly in the renewable power industries.

A new report entitled “2012 Many Shades of Green, California’s Shift to a Cleaner, More Productive Economy” confirms that California’s green economy showed greater resilience at the height of the last recession, performing better than the overall economy and retaining more jobs. Employment in California’s green economy grew by 53% from 1995 to 2010 compared to a 12 % job growth in the wider economy. And this trend looks set to continue.

As TriplePundit reports, California started the New Year with five approved alternative energy projects, stimulated by the state’s Renewable Power Standard (RPS), a mandate to draw 33% of electricity from renewable resources by 2020.

Sunnyvale’s Bloom Energy has benefited from federal investment tax credits, spurring the installation of Bloom box fuel cells throughout the state, from Google and Adobe in Northern California to Caltech in Southern California; and the creation of 1,500 green jobs. In addition, the California Air Resources board recently approved new rules to accelerate the move to zero-emission electric cars which will encourage California electric carmakers, Tesla, Fisker, and CODA. Tesla Motors has set up shop in Fremont’s old NUMMI (GM-Toyota) plant and expects to create 400 jobs this quarter as it ramps up production of its Model S sedan.

But Fremont is also home to the solar manufacturer, Solyndra, which went bankrupt last year and has become toxic evidence for critics of the president’s green vision. His green mantra has been described as a Captain Ahab-like folly that will result in Obama’s final demise — politically that is.

Critics are also quick to point out that the $16 billion federal loan guarantee program is out of cash, subsidy programs are under threat; and some say, much of the president’s political green capital has been exhausted.

Democrats and Republicans appear to have deep philosophical differences on green energy investment, including a seemingly uncrossable chasm over climate change. GOP front-runner Mitt Romney has an energy plan that calls for concentrating alternative energy funding in basic research. His Believe in America plan states:

“We should not be in the business of steering investment toward particular politically favored approaches. That is a recipe for both time and money wasted on projects that do not bring us dividends.”

Yet the Obama administration remains committed to Green. Last week in a Fresh Dialogues interview in Silicon Valley, David Axelrod, the president’s chief strategist, reaffirmed the administration’s commitment to clean energy. “We need to command the clean energy technology of the future,” said Axelrod. “Or we’re going to see that go to other parts of the world.”

So the stage is set. If the president succeeds in getting support for his green vision and passing clean energy tax credits and renewing subsidies, the Golden State, with its clean energy and cleantech focus, is poised to benefit. If not, the state is likely to continue to pursue its green path, but at a slower pace, and the US may cede the race for clean energy dominance to China and India.