In the impending conflict over the Environmental Protection Agency carbon-reduction regulations President Obama will announce today, self-interest reinforces ideology.
The conservative Republican-dominated red states most ideologically resistant to federal regulation in general also tend to be the states most reliant on carbon-intensive fuels (particularly coal) for their electricity. They’re also the most invested in the existing fossil-fuel economy.
By contrast, the blue Democratic-leaning states most ideologically sympathetic to Obama’s efforts against climate change also tend to be less reliant on coal for their electricity and less integrated into the fossil-fuel economy. CONT.
Ronald Brownstein, National Journal