Poll: On Earth Day, Obama gets high marks on the environment

Americans have very high expectations for President Obama on environmental issues, much higher than they had for President George W. Bush when he took office, according to a new poll.

The Gallup Poll, released Wednesday on Earth Day, found that nearly eight in 10 respondents think Obama will do a good job handling the country’s environment. Just more than half thought Bush would do the same.

Gallup notes that the difference is not a result of Obama having a higher general approval rating that Bush. At this point in their administrations they received similar marks.

Obama gets high marks on the environment across party lines. Sixty-five percent of Republicans say he’ll do a good job on the issue. That’s suprising considering ony 32 percent approve of his job performance in the same poll.

There was a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points in the poll.

jeremy.jacobs@digital-stage.thehill.com