Environmental Polling Roundup – July 25, 2025
Headlines
Navigator – Around half of voters are “extremely” concerned about increasing electricity prices and worsening pollution as potential results of the reconciliation bill; large majorities are worried about extreme weather and about Trump’s cuts to FEMA and the NWS [Website, Deck, Topline]
Fox News – Americans disapprove of the reconciliation bill’s cuts to wind and solar, and are split on ending tax credits for EVs [Article, Topline, Crosstabs]
Center for Working-Class Politics + Jacobin – Majorities of working-class Americans support climate action and want the government to do more to protect the environment [Website, Report]
Key Takeaways
Electricity costs and public health are both strong options to frame the impacts of recent clean energy cuts. In gauging concerns about a wide variety of potential impacts from the reconciliation bill, Navigator finds that two harms related to energy and the environment stand out as particularly troubling to voters:
- Electricity prices could increase by an average of $280 a year per household because there will be less solar and wind energy on the grid, creating a shortage
- Pollution in our air and water could get worse
And while concerns about these harms aren’t quite as widespread as concerns about the impacts related to health care and food assistance, they are in the top half of the potential consequences that Navigator tested. These findings are consistent with other recent polling by EDF Action, which found that voters were widely concerned about the bill’s potential to raise electricity bills and increase harmful pollution in addition to its more frequently-cited impacts on health care and the national debt.
Concerns about extreme weather cut across partisan lines, as do concerns about Trump gutting FEMA and the NWS. While attitudes about extreme weather have unfortunately become highly polarized, polls still find that concerns about extreme weather events are still relatively more bipartisan than concerns about climate change. This creates the potential for strong cross-partisan support on policies related to climate adaptation and disaster preparedness.
To that end, amid Trump’s deeply unpopular push to gut or outright eliminate FEMA and other agencies that deal with weather disasters, we have seen substantial pushback against the idea from within his own Republican base. In their latest survey, Navigator finds that many Republican voters (43%) are concerned about Trump cutting FEMA and the National Weather Service–even when these cuts are explicitly referred to as Trump’s plan.
Good Data Points to Highlight
- [Reconciliation Bill] 49% of voters are “extremely” concerned (5 on a 1-5 scale of concern) that Trump and Republicans’ budget plan will increase electricity prices [Navigator]
- [Reconciliation Bill] 49% of voters are “extremely” concerned (5 on a 1-5 scale of concern) that Trump and Republicans’ budget plan will worsen pollution of our air and water [Navigator]
- [Reconciliation Bill] By an 18-point margin (40% approve / 58% disapprove), voters disapprove of ending tax incentives for wind and solar energy as part of the reconciliation bill [Fox News]
- [FEMA + NWS Cuts] 66% of voters are concerned about Trump making significant cuts to FEMA and the National Weather Service, including 46% who are “very” concerned [Navigator]
- [NWS] 77% of voters have favorable opinions of the National Weather Service, compared to just 10% who feel unfavorably about it [Navigator]
- [FEMA] 61% of voters have favorable opinions of FEMA, compared to just 22% who feel unfavorably about it [Navigator]
- [NOAA] 50% of voters have favorable opinions of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, compared to just 9% who feel unfavorably about it [Navigator]
Full Roundup
Navigator – Around half of voters are “extremely” concerned about increasing electricity prices and worsening pollution as potential results of the reconciliation bill; large majorities are worried about extreme weather and about Trump’s cuts to FEMA and the NWS [Website, Deck, Topline]
Voters are deeply concerned about a wide range of harms from the reconciliation bill. While the consequences of cuts to health care and food assistance rank as the very most concerning overall, around half of voters also report that they are “extremely” concerned about increases to electricity prices and about worsening pollution.
Below are the percentages who say that they are “extremely” concerned (5 on a 1-5 concern scale) by the various potential impacts that Navigator asked about:
- As many as 18 million children could lose school meals: 59% “extremely” concerned
- As many as 17 million Americans could lose their health care coverage: 57%
- Health insurance premiums could rise by as much as 75%: 57%
- Up to 22 million American families could lose some or all of their food assistance: 56%
- Up to 700 rural hospitals – or roughly 1 in 3 rural hospitals nationwide – could close due to Medicaid cuts: 53%
- Up to 1 in 4 nursing homes in the U.S. say they could shut down due to Medicaid cuts: 52%
- The national debt will increase by more than $3 trillion: 51%
- The majority of the tax cuts will go to the wealthiest Americans and big corporations: 50%
- Electricity prices could increase by an average of $280 a year per household because there will be less solar and wind energy on the grid, creating a shortage: 49%
- Pollution in our air and water could get worse: 49%
- Interest rates may increase again as a result of adding trillions to the national debt: 48%
- Big corporations and rich individuals will get a tax deduction for purchasing private jets: 47%
- The average American family will see almost no change in their taxes, while those earning more than $1 million a year will get over $100,000 in tax breaks: 45%
- ICE will get more money to disappear immigrants off the street, separate them from their families without notice, and deport them: 45%
- Nearly 2 million construction jobs are now at risk: 43%
- As many as 330,000 clean energy jobs are now at risk: 43%
- Our communities will be endangered by it being easier to buy dangerous firearms and silencers: 41%
- As many as 200 Planned Parenthood health centers in 24 states across the country could shut down: 41%
- Tax credits for new solar and wind projects and electric vehicle purchases will end: 31%
Looking just at the potential consequences that relate to energy and the environment, we can see that there is some clear differentiation. Impacts on electricity prices and pollution rank as the most troubling impacts compared to the losses of clean energy jobs and (especially) tax credits for clean energy and EVs:
- Electricity prices could increase by an average of $280 a year per household because there will be less solar and wind energy on the grid, creating a shortage: 49% “extremely” concerning
- Pollution in our air and water could get worse: 49%
- As many as 330,000 clean energy jobs are now at risk: 43%
- Tax credits for new solar and wind projects and electric vehicle purchases will end: 31%
Voters are widely concerned about extreme weather. Navigator finds that around three-quarters of voters (73%) are at least “somewhat” concerned about extreme weather, including nine in ten Democrats (90%), nearly four in five independents (78%), and the majority of Republicans (54%).
And while there is a large partisan gap in voters’ stated concerns about extreme weather, Navigator finds that Republicans are more likely to express concern about extreme weather than about climate change. For comparison, while 54% of Republicans say that they are at least “somewhat” concerned about extreme weather, less than half of Republicans say that climate change is at least a “somewhat” serious problem for Americans today (46%) or that climate change will be at least a “somewhat” serious problem for their children or future generations of their family (44%).
The majority of voters, including a substantial minority of Republicans, are concerned about Trump’s cuts to FEMA and the NWS. Navigator finds that around two-thirds of voters (66%) are at least “somewhat” concerned about “Trump making significant cuts to FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) and the National Weather Service.” This includes nearly half of voters (46%) who are “very” concerned about these cuts.
The overwhelming majority of Democrats (91%) express concern about the cuts to these agencies, as do most independents (56%) and more than two in five Republicans (43%).
Fox News – Americans disapprove of the reconciliation bill’s cuts to wind and solar, and are split on ending tax credits for EVs [Article, Topline, Crosstabs]
Clean energy cuts are one of several deeply unpopular provisions of the reconciliation bill. Fox News (which actually does employ a reputable, bipartisan polling team for its surveys) finds that the majority of reconciliation bill provisions that they asked about, including cuts to wind and solar, are deeply underwater with voters. Meanwhile, voters are split about evenly on ending tax credits for electric vehicles.
Below are the margins of approval for the items that they asked about:
- Removing taxes on income from tips and overtime pay: +42 (70% approve / 28% disapprove)
- Increasing spending on the military and national defense: +24 (61% approve / 37% disapprove)
- Ending tax credits for electric cars: -2 (48% approve / 50% disapprove)
- Increasing work requirements to receive Medicaid: – 8 (45% approve / 53% disapprove)
- Increasing spending on the border wall: -11 (44% approve / 55% disapprove)
- Ending tax incentives for wind and solar energy: -18 (40% approve / 58% disapprove)
- Increasing spending for immigrant detention centers: -19 (40% approve / 59% disapprove)
- Reducing funding for food stamps, also known as SNAP: -32 (33% approve / 65% disapprove)
- Increasing the national debt ceiling by five trillion dollars: -51 (23% approve / 74% disapprove)
Center for Working-Class Politics + Jacobin – Majorities of working-class Americans support climate action and want the government to do more to protect the environment [Website, Report]
Contrary to some dubious punditry, working-class Americans care about climate change and want climate action. It’s become something of a trope in criticism of the Democratic Party, particularly after the 2024 presidential election, that climate change is an “elite” concern and that the party’s focus on it has therefore alienated working-class voters.
Drawing on data from three large-scale studies of U.S. public opinion–the American National Election Studies (ANES), the General Social Survey (GSS), and the Cooperative Election Study (CES)–the Center for Working-Class Politics and Jacobin find that working-class Americans consistently hold pro-climate and pro-environment views.
Below are the averages that they calculate of working-class Americans’ stances on environmental topics in surveys conducted from 2020-2022, defining working-class Americans as those who do not hold four-year college degrees and who are also in the bottom two-thirds of the income distribution:
- 73% recognize that climate change impacts severe weather
- 70% say that we spend too little on the environment
- 69% believe that climate change is important
- 63% favor action on climate change
- 61% say that the government should address rising temperatures
- 57% want to increase federal spending on the environment
- 56% favor tougher environmental regulations
- 52% support regulating greenhouse gas emissions
- 38% oppose increasing U.S. fossil fuel production
- 28% would accept cuts in living standards if it helps the environment
As this data shows, working-class Americans widely recognize the reality of climate change, care about the issue, and believe that the government isn’t doing enough to protect the environment more broadly.
Differences in environmental attitudes between working-class Americans and other groups largely reflect the increasingly progressive views of the middle class, rather than working-class backlash. Pulling from the report:
“Working-class Americans’ views on environmental issues have also skewed less progressive historically than those of middle- and upper-class Americans… On the other hand, with the exception of the question ‘Accepts cuts in standard of living for the environment’ (which is also unpopular among middle- and upper-class Americans), working-class Americans have held and continue to hold majority favorable positions on all the environmental questions we examined. This is true even in cases where there has been significant movement toward less progressive attitudes over time, such as working-class support for ‘favoring action on climate change,’ which dropped from around 70% between 1990 and 2007, to just over 60% between 2008 and 2022. As a result, the increasing progressivism we see among middle- and upper-class Americans compared to working-class Americans on environmental issues has been driven largely by a leftward shift among the middle class rather than a rightward trend among the working class.
…
It is important to note that working-class Americans overall are far from reactionary on environmental issues. Indeed, majorities of working-class Americans between 2020 and 2022 had progressive attitudes on eight of the ten environmental questions we examined, including large majorities in the cases of belief that climate change impacts severe weather (73.1%) and that we spend too little on the environment (70.1%).”
Related Resources
Environmental Polling Roundup – August 6th, 2021
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