Environmental Polling Roundup – August 11, 2023
HEADLINES
Data for Progress – Voters support stronger EPA rules on power plant pollution and want their local utility companies to prioritize clean energy over fossil fuels [Article, Crosstabs]
Washington Post + UMD – Americans give President Biden better marks on climate change than Trump at the same point in his presidency, despite knowing little about Biden’s climate actions; Americans overwhelmingly say that they want the next president to favor government action on climate change [Article, Topline]
Yale + George Mason – Americans who experience climate distress are more likely to take personal action on climate change [Article]
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Support for President Biden’s major climate policies continues to far outpace awareness. A new Washington Post/UMD poll finds that most Americans have heard little or nothing about President Biden’s major actions on climate change – including the Inflation Reduction Act as well as specific policies such as tax credits for clean energy manufacturing and solar panels. However, the poll finds that Americans support these and other major climate policies of the Biden administration by wide margins when they hear about them. Advocates should continue to assume that everyday people know little about what the Biden administration has done on climate change, and raising awareness of these actions can go a long way to fostering a sense of momentum and positive movement to address the problem. The public clearly wants to have a president who will address the issue, as the poll also finds that Americans overwhelmingly prefer that the next president favors rather than opposes government action on climate change.
- Advocates should make sure to provide people with productive outlets during times of high climate distress. A new report by Yale and George Mason finds that Americans who experience “climate distress” such as anxiety and depression over climate change are more likely to have taken concrete personal actions to address the issue and are also more likely to take concrete actions in the future – such as volunteering their time and contacting elected officials. While environmental organizations can understandably be sensitive about looking opportunistic with calls to action or appeals to donate money during times of high climate distress, such as weather disasters, the data indicates that people who care about climate change need productive outlets precisely at those times in order to channel their distress into positive action.
GOOD DATA POINTS TO HIGHLIGHT
- [Presidential Election + Climate] By a 70%-27% margin, Americans say that they want the next president to be someone who favors government action to address climate change over someone who opposes government action to address climate change [Washington Post + UMD]
- [Tax Credits for Solar] By a 65%-15% margin, Americans support expanded tax credits to install solar panels at homes and businesses [Washington Post + UMD]
- [Tax Credits for Heat Pumps] By a 54%-15% margin, Americans support new tax credits for homeowners buying a heat pump system for heating and AC [Washington Post + UMD]
- [Tax Credits for Clean Energy Manufacturing] By a 54%-19% margin, Americans support expanded tax credits for companies manufacturing solar panels and wind turbines in the United States [Washington Post + UMD]
- [Tax Credits for EVs] By a 50%-22% margin, Americans support expanded tax credits for buyers of electric vehicles [Washington Post + UMD]
- [EPA Power Plant Rules] Voters support the EPA’s proposed new power plant pollution rules by a 65%-24% margin after reading a brief description of them [Data for Progress]
- [Utilities] 76% of voters disapprove of utility companies using money collected from consumers’ bills to fund political activities like lobbying [Data for Progress]
- [Utilities + Clean Energy] By a 59%-33% margin, voters say that their local utility company should prioritize clean energy like wind and solar over fossil fuel energy like coal, oil, and gas [Data for Progress]
- [Utilities + EPA Rules] 54% of voters say that their local utility company should support the EPA’s proposed new power plant pollution rules [Data for Progress]
- [Issue Priority] More Americans name climate change and the environment as the single “most important issue” to them than any other issue aside from inflation/prices, health care, and the economy/jobs [The Economist + YouGov]
FULL ROUNDUP
Data for Progress – Voters support stronger EPA rules on power plant pollution and want their local utility companies to prioritize clean energy over fossil fuels [Article, Crosstabs]
Polling on the proposed new EPA power plant pollution rules that were announced in May, Data for Progress finds that voters support the proposed power plant rules by a 65%-24% margin after reading the following description:
“The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently proposed new rules to reduce pollution from coal and gas-fired power plants.
Researchers estimate these proposed rules will protect public health, reduce harmful pollutants, and deliver up to $85 billion in climate and public health benefits over the next two decades.”
The proposed rules earn overwhelming support from both Democrats (84% support / 8% oppose) and independents (63% support / 24% oppose), and also attract more support than opposition from Republican voters (47% support / 41% oppose).
With the utility lobbying group Edison Electrical Institute (EEI) recently coming out against the proposed rules in formal comments, Data for Progress also finds that voters want their local utilities to prioritize clean energy over fossil fuels and to keep consumers’ money out of political activities like lobbying.
By a 26-point margin, voters prefer that their local utility company prioritizes clean energy like wind and solar power (59%) over fossil fuel energy like coal, oil, and gas (33%). Both Democrats (82% clean energy / 14% fossil fuels) and independents (58% clean energy / 30% fossil fuels) widely agree that their utilities should prioritize clean energy, while Republicans generally prefer that their utilities prioritize fossil fuels (34% clean energy / 54% fossil fuels).
Meanwhile, partisans on both sides disapprove of utilities using consumers’ money to fund political activities like lobbying. Just over three-quarters of voters say that they disapprove of utility companies “using money collected from customers’ monthly bills to fund political activities” like lobbying, advertisements, and trade association membership dues (17% approve / 76% disapprove), including large majorities of Democrats (20% approve / 74% disapprove), independents (12% approve / 78% disapprove), and Republicans (17% approve / 76% disapprove).
Washington Post + UMD – Americans give President Biden better marks on climate change than Trump at the same point in his presidency, despite knowing little about Biden’s climate actions; Americans overwhelmingly say that they want the next president to favor government action on climate change [Article, Topline]
While the Washington Post headline about their poll focuses on disapproval of President Biden’s handling of climate change, the poll topline tells a more nuanced story and shows that Americans are generally unaware of Biden’s key climate actions. Additionally, the data is very clear that Americans prefer Biden’s approach to climate change to Trump’s.
Compared to President Biden, Americans disapproved of Trump’s handling of climate change by a far greater margin at this point in his presidency. The Washington Post’s recent poll finds that Americans disapprove of President Biden’s handling of climate change by a 17-point margin (40% approve / 57% disapprove). By comparison, polling commissioned by the Washington Post in August of 2019 found that Americans disapproved of then-president Trump’s handling of climate change by a 37-point margin (30% approve / 67% disapprove)
The new poll also finds that Americans overwhelmingly prefer the next president to be someone who favors government action on climate change (70%) over someone who opposes government action to address climate change (27%).
And while Americans don’t particularly trust either party on the issue, more Americans say that they trust the Democratic Party to address climate change (39% trust / 59% distrust) than trust the Republican Party to address climate change (24% trust / 74% distrust).
In drilling down on some of President Biden’s signature climate policies, the poll finds that few Americans actually oppose President Biden’s major climate actions but most are generally unaware of them.
Roughly two-thirds or more say that they’ve heard “little” or “nothing” about the five major Biden climate policies that were asked about in the poll, including expanded tax credits to install solar panels (66%), expanded tax credits for buyers of electric vehicles (67%), the Inflation Reduction Act (71%), expanded tax credits for companies manufacturing solar panels and wind turbines in the United States (75%), and new tax credits for homeowners buying a heat pump system for heating and AC (77%).
And in response to hearing about Biden’s major climate policies, far more Americans support than oppose each one:
- Expanded tax credits to install solar panels at homes and businesses – 65% support / 15% oppose
- New tax credits for homeowners buying a heat pump system for heating and AC – 54% support / 15% oppose
- Expanded tax credits for companies manufacturing solar panels and wind turbines in the United States – 54% support / 19% oppose
- Expanded tax credits for buyers of electric vehicles – 50% support / 22% oppose
- The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act passed by Congress and signed into law by Biden – 39% support / 20% oppose
It’s worth noting that support for the Inflation Reduction Act is lower here than we typically see in polls. The Washington Post/UMD poll provided no detail about what is in the bill, and a large share of poll respondents (39%) accordingly said that they weren’t sure whether they supported or opposed it. In polls that provide basic descriptions of the Inflation Reduction Act, we typically see 60%+ in favor of the bill.
Yale + George Mason – Americans who experience climate distress are more likely to take personal action on climate change [Article]
One thing that we’ve been paying more attention to recently is the idea of “climate despair.” We want the public to care about climate change, but we also don’t want people to be overwhelmed into inaction.
Fortunately, research by Yale and George Mason finds that Americans who feel psychological distress about climate change (such as anxiety or depression) are more likely to take concrete actions to address the problem such as volunteering or contacting elected officials.
Excerpting from the article linked above, with emphasis added in bold:
“The effects of climate change on mental health are growing. Many studies show that rising temperatures and climate impacts, such as wildfires and floods, can directly and indirectly contribute to psychological distress about climate change, including feelings of helplessness, depression, grief, or anxiety (often referred to as “eco-anxiety”)….
The negative effects of climate change can also be experienced indirectly (e.g., learning about its severity and hearing about others’ experiences from friends or family members, or through the media), which can lead to psychological distress about climate change….
Here, we investigate whether distress about climate change is associated with climate action (e.g., political actions, discussion of climate change with family and friends, etc.) using data from our December 2022 Climate Change in the American Mind survey. The findings highlight the importance of providing people distressed about climate change with ways to act on their concerns.
In December 2022, we found that about one in ten Americans reported experiencing at least one feature of climate distress (anxiety or depression because of global warming). In this analysis, we compare Americans who reported at least one feature of climate distress to those who reported no distress at all….
Americans who had experienced at least one feature of climate distress were much more likely than those who had not to say they had taken different forms of climate action. This includes having signed a petition about global warming (46% vs. 10%, respectively), or having volunteered at an organization working on global warming (19% vs. 2%)…
Americans who reported climate distress were also much more willing to take climate action compared to those who did not report any distress. For instance, Americans who experienced at least one feature of climate distress were more likely than those who had not to say they would meet with an elected official or their staff about global warming (41% vs. 20%, respectively), write letters, email, or phone government officials about global warming (40% vs. 21%), or personally engage in non-violent civil disobedience (e.g., sit-ins, blockades, or trespassing) against corporate or government activities that make global warming worse (35% vs. 9%)...
Additionally, Americans who reported experiencing at least one feature of climate distress were more likely to say they would join a campaign to convince elected officials to take action to reduce global warming or are already participating in such a campaign, compared to those who reported no distress (56% vs. 19% respectively)…
Americans who had experienced at least one feature of climate distress were also much more likely to say they discuss global warming with family and friends (65%) than those who reported no distress (31%)…
These findings align with other research indicating that climate distress is associated with increased pro-climate action. Importantly, while distress like eco-anxiety can be maladaptive and potentially lead to serious mental health consequences (e.g., interfering with behavior and daily functioning including sleep, socializing, and work performance), it can also serve an adaptive function and motivate proactive behavior to cope with the problem. Experiencing a certain level of distress in response to the realities of climate change is natural and understandable. Channeling that distress into climate action can both help these individuals cope constructively and address climate change at the same time….
Providing people with opportunities to take climate action, especially as part of climate-related communities and social groups, can help them manage their feelings of distress, while also empowering them to generate social change. For example, research has found that engaging in climate action can help young people cope with their negative feelings about climate change and experience positive feelings such as hopefulness, determination, and a sense of agency…”
Related Resources
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