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Environmental Polling Roundup – April 4, 2025

David Gold David Gold

Headlines

Gallup – A rising share of Americans report experience with extreme weather, as nearly two in five say that they’ve been affected in the past two years [Article]

Value of Water Campaign – Voters overwhelmingly support continued federal funding for water infrastructure projects [Website, Fact Sheet]

Centerline Liberties + Zero Emission Transportation Association + Conservative Energy Network – Large majorities of voters across party lines agree that the federal government should invest in American EV manufacturing jobs, expand EV charging infrastructure, and help make EVs more affordable [Press Release, Memo, Deck]

Data for Progress – Voters are most likely to believe that solar is the cheapest source of energy today, followed by wind and natural gas [Release, Crosstabs]

Key Takeaways

Voters want the government to back the domestic EV industry, even if they aren’t in the market for an electric vehicle themselves. New polling from a coalition of groups including Centerline Liberties, the Zero Emission Transportation Network, and the Conservative Energy Network finds broad support for federal investment in electric vehicles. In opposition to Trump’s anti-EV push, large majorities across party lines say that the government should invest in the domestic EV industry for a wide variety of reasons – including to create and retain jobs, make EVs more affordable for consumers, bolster the U.S. auto industry, and help the U.S. compete with other countries like China.

Importantly, the poll finds widespread agreement with all of these rationales for EV investment – as well as continued support for consumer incentives for EVs – even though most respondents said that they aren’t likely to buy or lease an EV themselves. This shows that there is a path to strengthen public support for pro-EV policies regardless of consumers’ own personal preferences.

Voters are catching up to the fact that renewables are now cheaper than fossil fuels. Data for Progress finds that voters are more likely to choose clean energy sources such as solar and wind than fossil fuels like natural gas and coal when asked to identify the “cheapest sources of energy today,” as voters are catching up to the long-term trends that have seen renewables recently become cheaper than fossil fuels.

Given that consumer cost impacts remain the key front in the debate over the country’s energy future in almost every poll on the topic, raising public awareness that clean energy saves consumers money is one of the most important things that advocates can do to support pro-climate policies.

Good Data Points to Highlight

Full Roundup

Gallup – A rising share of Americans report experience with extreme weather, as nearly two in five say that they’ve been affected in the past two years [Article]

A rising share of Americans report that they’ve been affected by extreme weather. Gallup finds that 37% of Americans now say that they were personally impacted by an extreme weather event where they live in the past two years, an increase from 33% in previous Gallup polls from 2022 and 2023.

Experiences with extreme weather vary widely by region. Americans living in the South (49%) and West (43%) are considerably more likely to say that they’ve personally been impacted by extreme weather in recent years than those living in the Midwest (26%) or East (21%).

There is also considerable variation in the most common extreme weather event by region. In an open-ended question, more Americans said that they were impacted by hurricanes specifically (12%) than any other type of extreme weather. Those living in the South (28%) were the most likely to say that they’d been impacted by hurricanes, while Americans in the West were more likely to name experiences with wildfires (17%) than any other type of extreme weather and those in the Midwest (10%) were most likely to say that they’d been impacted by tornadoes.

Americans who report experience with extreme weather are more concerned about climate change, even after controlling for partisanship. Polls consistently show a positive relationship between experience with extreme weather and concerns about climate change, though it’s difficult to determine causality as Democrats are both more concerned about climate change than other groups and more likely to self-report experiences with extreme weather. Even after controlling for partisanship, however, Gallup finds that people who have felt personal impacts from extreme weather are more likely to be concerned about climate change.

Pulling from their article: 

“Gallup has previously demonstrated a link between extreme weather experiences and concern about climate change. Americans in the current poll who have experienced extreme weather are significantly more likely to say they worry ‘a great deal’ about climate change (51%) than those who have not (34%). This effect is seen among both Republicans (who are much less inclined to worry about climate change) and Democrats (who are much more inclined). Extreme weather experiences, then, may contribute to the rise in concern about climate change Gallup has observed, with an average 41% worrying a great deal about the issue over the past 10 years compared with 32% in the 25 years before that.”

Value of Water Campaign – Voters overwhelmingly support continued federal funding for water infrastructure projects [Website, Fact Sheet]

No political issue is more important to voters than reliable water access. While polls typically lump different environmental priorities together into the broad category of “climate / environmental issues,” here the Value of Water Campaign directly asked voters how important they considered reliable water access to be in the context of other national issues.

They find that around nine in ten voters (92%) rate reliable water access as an “extremely” or “very” important issue, ranking water access ahead of any other issue priority – including reducing inflation (86%) and strengthening the economy (85%).

Voters intuitively link clean water to vital priorities, including health and the economy. Voters nearly unanimously agree that continued investments in drinking water and wastewater services are critical for good public health (96%) and for the overall well-being of their communities (95%), and voters also overwhelmingly agree that these investments in clean water are critical for a strong economy (85%).

Voters overwhelmingly reject cuts to federal funding for water infrastructure. When told about possible cuts to federal funding for water infrastructure, four in five voters (80%) support continuing this funding rather than cutting it.

Supporting water infrastructure funding is a clear political winner for public officials. Consistent with their strong rejection of funding cuts for water infrastructure, voters want to reward elected officials who protect or expand this funding and are prepared to punish those who don’t. 

Around three-quarters (76%) say that they would feel more favorably about an elected official who supports additional investment in water infrastructure, while around two-thirds (66%) would feel less favorably about an elected official who opposes additional investment in water infrastructure.

Centerline Liberties + Zero Emission Transportation Association + Conservative Energy Network – Large majorities of voters across party lines agree that the federal government should invest in American EV manufacturing jobs, expand EV charging infrastructure, and help make EVs more affordable [Press Release, Memo, Deck]

Bipartisan majorities want continued federal investment in EVs and EV infrastructure, both to create jobs and to make EVs more accessible to consumers. As Trump looks for ways to undermine or eliminate Biden-era electric vehicle incentives, this new polling indicates that Trump is going against the wishes of voters across the political spectrum with his anti-EV push.

Surveying voters nationwide and oversampling voters in congressional districts that stand to particularly benefit from EV investments, the poll finds that large majorities of voters – including most Republicans – believe that the federal government should “definitely” or “probably” do each of the following:

Voters believe key arguments in favor of EV investment – including that these investments create good jobs, strengthen the U.S. auto industry, and help make America more energy independent. Nearly four in five voters (79%), including 72% of Republicans, say that the U.S. auto industry will be better off if the federal government passes policies that make EVs more affordable and builds more EV charging stations.

Additionally, large majorities across party lines believe that each of the following arguments in support of domestic EV investment are “definitely” or “probably” true:

The specter of losing jobs to China strengthens the case for domestic EV investment. In a split-sample experiment, half of respondents were asked whether the U.S. should “make investments that keep electric vehicle manufacturing jobs in the U.S. so that these jobs don’t go to China ” and half were asked whether the U.S. should “make investments that create electric vehicle manufacturing jobs in the U.S.”

Voters who saw the version of the question that mentioned China were six points more likely to say that the U.S. should make these investments (86% vs. 80%) and nine points more likely to say that the U.S. should “definitely” make these investments (45% vs. 36%).

Voters across party lines want to keep the consumer EV tax credit. While less than half of respondents (41%) said that they’re “very” or “somewhat” likely to seriously consider buying or leasing an electric vehicle the next time that they’re in the market for a car, majorities across party lines say that the federal government should help make EVs more accessible to consumers. 

More than seven in ten say that the government should “definitely” or “probably” do each of the following:

Data for Progress – Voters are most likely to believe that solar is the cheapest source of energy today, followed by wind and natural gas [Release, Crosstabs]

Voters are inclined to believe that renewable energy sources, especially solar, are cheaper than fossil fuels. When asked to identify the “cheapest form of energy today” from a list, voters are considerably more likely to choose solar than any other energy source:

And when asked to identify the second-cheapest source from the list, solar and wind clearly stand apart as the two energy sources that voters believe are most affordable:

Voters across party lines recognize the cost-effectiveness of solar, but are more divided about wind. Democrats (33%), independents (27%), and Republicans (25%) are all more likely to identify solar as the cheapest form of energy than any other energy source.

However, while majorities of Democrats identify both solar (60%) and wind (60%) among the two cheapest forms of energy, Republicans are more likely to choose natural gas (44%) as one of the cheapest forms of energy than to choose wind (32%).

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