Amid the United States fraught debate over climate change, one policy solution stands out as uniquely popular. It has support from environmentalists, economists , Republicans and even Exxon Mobil Corp. , the historic bankroller of the movement to seed doubt over global warming.

Its the same approach taken to alcohol, tobacco, sugar and other things deemed too dangerous to leave unchecked but too widely used to ban namely, put a tax on carbon emissions.

Now, a new poll shows that a majority of registered voters support taxing fossil fuel to help reduce global warming. Even more strikingly, the average American is willing to pay nearly 15 percent more for energy each year to help support a carbon tax, according to a paper published Thursday in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

Americans, theyre not in love with coal and natural gas, and they tend to think of them as very dirty and very polluting, Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and a co-author of the study, told HuffPost. But theyre not naive. They dont think and pardon the pun that its like flipping a light switch and were all on solar power.

The survey participants a group of 1,226 American adults, ages 18 and older, surveyed last year between Nov. 18 and Dec. 1 were asked: If a tax on fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) to help reduce global warming were to cost your household $X more each year in higher energy bills, would you support or oppose it? Participants were then given a choice of different amounts of money.

The average American said they would be willing to spend $177 per year, which comes out to about 14.4 percent more on energy when compared to current electricity rates in each state, the researchers found. That alone would raise about $22.3 billion, not including a carbon tax added to other goods and services in the economy.

The White House has repeatedly said it would not pursue a carbon tax as part of the broad tax overhaul proposed earlier this year. President Donald Trump has expressed skepticism that climate change is a serious problem. He has also claimed, without evidence, that the overwhelming majority of scientists who say greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels and industrialized farming are to blame for climate change are, in fact, perpetuating a hoax. Trumps administration has aggressively rolled back policies to curb emissions.