Environmental Polling Roundup – June 13, 2025
Headlines
Pew – Solar and wind continue to be Americans’ favorite energy sources, despite declining Republican support for clean energy [Website, Full Report, Topline]
Pew – Americans who report experiences with extreme weather, including Republicans, overwhelmingly say that climate change played a role [Website, Full Report, Topline]
Data for Progress – Voters widely agree that the federal government should keep backing clean energy loans [Article, Crosstabs]
Key Takeaways
Democrats and Republicans are more polarized over energy sources than ever before. As recently as 2020, Republicans overwhelmingly supported the expansion of solar and wind power and widely agreed with the rest of the country in saying that the government should prioritize the expansion of clean energy over fossil fuels. However, Republicans’ support for wind and solar began dropping quickly after Biden took office and they started shifting more in favor of fossil fuel extraction instead.
Pew finds that these trends have continued into Trump’s second term, creating unprecedented levels of partisan polarization over the country’s energy choices. While Democrats continue to back the clean energy transition by an overwhelming margin and strongly prefer solar and wind to other forms of energy development, Republicans now show a clear preference for fossil fuels over renewables. This dynamic means that the expansion of clean energy is not the persuasive policy hook for conservatives that it was just a few years ago.
Advocates can help to stop this slide by educating conservative audiences about the benefits of clean energy, particularly for consumer costs. For now, however, we’d recommend that environmental groups who are trying to build bridges to conservative audiences should emphasize other cross-partisan priorities if possible–such as preserving public lands and protecting safe drinking water–given how fractious the politics of energy have become in Trump’s second term.
Nuclear is the only energy source that Democrats and Republicans are shifting in the same direction on, as it continues to grow in popularity across the political spectrum. Recent shifts in Americans’ energy attitudes can broadly be characterized by two clear trends: increased partisan polarization around renewables and fossil fuels due to Republicans’ changing preferences, and rising support for nuclear energy that is driven by both parties.
Pew, like Gallup, finds that a growing majority of Americans support nuclear power generation. And recent gains in support for nuclear energy have come from both Democrats and Republicans, as Democrats increasingly accept nuclear energy as a means for decarbonization and Republicans increasingly support all energy options aside from solar and wind.
Good Data Points to Highlight
- [Solar] 77% of Americans support expanding solar power in the U.S. [Pew]
- [Wind] 68% of Americans support expanding wind power in the U.S. [Pew]
- [Clean Energy] By a 21-point margin (60%-39%), Americans say that expanding solar and wind production should be a higher priority for the country than expanding the exploration and production of oil, gas, and coal [Pew]
- [Clean Energy] Following simulated debate on the topic, 58% of voters say that Congress should keep funding for the Department of Energy’s clean energy loans in place while only 31% want to eliminate funding for them [Data for Progress]
Full Roundup
Pew – Solar and wind continue to be Americans’ favorite energy sources, despite declining Republican support for clean energy [Website, Full Report, Topline]
Solar and wind continue to be Americans’ favorite energy sources, despite sliding support among Republicans. Majorities of Americans support increasing the use of low-carbon energy sources, including solar, wind, and nuclear, while less than half want to expand different kinds of fossil fuel extraction. Below are the percentages of Americans who favor expanding each type of energy in the U.S.:
- More solar panel “farms” – 77%
- More wind turbine “farms” – 68%
- More nuclear power plants to generate electricity – 59%
- More offshore oil and gas drilling in U.S. waters – 48%
- More hydraulic fracturing, sometimes called “fracking,” for oil and natural gas – 45%
- More coal mining – 41%
While they remain Americans’ preferred energy sources, support for expanding solar (-13 since 2020) and wind (-15 since 2020) has dropped in recent years in large part due to declining support among Republicans. The percentage of Republicans who say that they favor expanding solar power has dropped by 23 points since 2020, while the percentage of Republicans who favor expanding wind power has dropped by 27 points since 2020.
In the past five years, meanwhile, Americans have shifted more in favor of expanding offshore oil and gas drilling (+8 since 2020), fracking (+8 since 2020), and coal mining (+8 since 2020). Over that time period, almost all of the gains in support for these fossil fuels has come from Republicans.
Support for nuclear energy continues to rise across the political spectrum. Nuclear is the only energy source in Pew’s tracking data that is growing in popularity among both Democrats and Republicans. Support for the expansion of nuclear power has increased by 16 points since 2020 (from 43% to 59%), with near-equal increases among Democrats (from 37% to 52%, +15) and Republicans (from 53% to 69%, +16).
Democrats and Republicans are more polarized over energy sources than ever before, as partisan trends that accelerated under Biden have continued during Trump’s second term. As recently as 2020, overwhelming majorities of Republicans said that the U.S. should expand both solar (84%) and wind (75%). At that time, in fact, Republicans were more likely to say that they supported the expansion of solar and wind than any other energy sources.
As soon as Biden took office in 2021, however, Republican support for renewables began dropping quickly and Republicans instead started rallying in favor of fossil fuels. Pew finds that those trends have continued into Trump’s second term. With Democrats’ attitudes about both renewables and fossil fuels largely holding steady in recent years, the shifts among Republicans have created an unprecedented level of partisan polarization over the country’s energy choices.
Below are the partisan gaps in support for expanding the various energy sources that Pew asked about:
- More offshore oil and gas drilling in U.S. waters – 52 points (75% of Republicans vs. 23% of Democrats)
- More coal mining – 50 points (67% of Republicans vs. 17% of Democrats)
- More hydraulic fracturing, sometimes called “fracking,” for oil and natural gas – 45 points (69% of Republicans vs. 24% of Democrats)
- More wind turbine “farms” – 39 points (87% of Democrats vs. 48% of Republicans)
- More solar panel “farms” – 30 points (91% of Democrats vs. 61% of Republicans)
- More nuclear power plants to generate electricity – 17 points (69% of Republicans vs. 52% of Democrats)
Republican support for the clean energy transition has roughly halved in the last five years. The majority of Americans continue to say that expanding wind and solar production (60%) is a more important priority for addressing America’s energy supply than expanding exploration and production of oil, coal, and natural gas (39%). However, the margin in favor of the clean energy transition has tightened significantly in recent years (from 79%-20% on this question in 2020).
Underlining how much Republicans’ energy preferences have changed since Trump’s first term, the percentage of Republicans who say that the expansion of wind and solar should be a higher priority than the expansion of fossil fuels is roughly half as high now (33%) as it was in 2020 (65%). Democrats, meanwhile, have been consistent in their overwhelming support for the clean energy transition in recent years (86% now, slightly down from 91% in 2020).
Americans are split on proposals to expand oil and gas drilling. Americans are closely divided on the idea of expanding offshore oil and gas drilling in U.S. waters (48% favor / 50% oppose), and are also conflicted about drilling on federally owned land: roughly one-third (33%) say that drilling on federal lands should be increased, while 28% say that it should be decreased and 19% prefer to keep it the same as it is now.
Support for the expansion of drilling is driven largely by Republicans, who appear to be following Trump’s lead as he calls for more domestic oil and gas production. Three-quarters of Republicans (75%, compared to 23% of Democrats) support expanding offshore drilling, and the majority of Republicans (57%, compared to 11% of Democrats) also say that drilling should be increased on federal lands.
Interest in EVs is stable, but Americans see more appeal in hybrids than fully electric models. Roughly one-third of Americans (33%) say that they are “very” or “somewhat” likely to seriously consider an electric vehicle the next time that they purchase a car, while 45% say that they are “very” or “somewhat” likely to consider a hybrid vehicle.
Pew found a sharp decline in EV interest last year, with the percentage saying that they were at least “somewhat” likely to consider an EV dropping from 38% in mid-2023 to 29% in mid-2024. This latest data indicates that EV interest is rebounding slightly, though current interest is still lower than it was in the early 2020s. Gallup similarly found a decline in Americans’ EV interest last year, but no further drop this year.
Democrats remain much more likely than Republicans to say that they’re at least “somewhat” likely to consider either an EV (48% of Democrats vs. 18% of Republicans) or a hybrid vehicle (60% of Democrats vs. 31% of Republicans).
Americans oppose the idea of phasing out gas-powered vehicles entirely. Polls show that outright “bans” or other measures that limit choices related to energy tend to be unpopular, and this has consistently been the case in polling about pushing gas-powered vehicles out of the market.
Here, Pew finds that only around one-third of Americans (34%) support phasing out the production of new gasoline cars and trucks by 2035. While Democrats lean in favor of the idea (54% support / 45% oppose), Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed to it (15% support / 85% oppose).
A slight majority say that it’s possible to cut back on environmental regulations and still protect air and water quality. Trump is clearly walking a fine line in eliminating environmental protections while still vowing to ensure clean air and water. For the time being, however, Americans believe that it’s theoretically possible to do both. Slightly more than half (54%) say that the country can cut back on environmental regulations and still effectively protect air and water quality, including around three-quarters of Republicans (77%) but only around one-third of Democrats (32%).
Pew – Americans who report experiences with extreme weather, including Republicans, overwhelmingly say that climate change played a role [Website, Full Report, Topline]
Around three-quarters of Americans say that they’ve dealt with some form of extreme weather in the past year. Pew asked about five different types of extreme weather in their survey, finding that around three-quarters of Americans (74%) report experiencing at least one type of extreme weather in the past 12 months. Experiences with severe storms and heat waves are particularly common:
- Severe weather, like floods or intense storms – 49% say that they experienced this in the past 12 months
- Long periods of unusually hot weather – 48%
- Droughts or water shortages – 36%
- Major wildfires – 26%
- Rising sea levels that erode beaches and shorelines – 16%
Among those who self-report experience with extreme weather, the vast majority say that climate change contributed to it–especially in cases of extreme heat. Out of the Americans who say that they experienced each type of extreme weather, 83%+ say that climate change contributed at least “a little” to the event that they experienced and 50%+ say that climate change contributed “a lot.”
The link between climate change and extreme heat is particularly clear to Americans, as is the connection between climate change and rising sea levels. Below are the percentages who believe that climate change contributed “a lot” to the extreme weather that they experienced, by weather type:
- Long periods of unusually hot weather – 64% say that climate change contributed “a lot”
- Rising sea levels that erode beaches and shorelines – 63%
- Major wildfires – 58%
- Droughts or water shortages – 55%
- Severe weather, like floods or intense storms – 50%
While they don’t feel as strongly about it as Democrats, Republicans who report experiences with extreme weather also say that climate change played some role in it. More than two-thirds of Democrats (68%-79%) who experienced each type of extreme weather say that climate change contributed “a lot” to the event, while less than half of Republicans (26%-43%) believe so.
However, large majorities of Republicans (63%-88%) say that climate change contributed at least “a little” to each type of extreme weather that they experienced. As with other Americans, Republicans are most likely to agree that climate change contributed to their experiences with unusually hot weather (79% contributed at least “a little,” 38% contributed “a lot”) and with rising sea levels (88% contributed at least “a little,” 43% contributed “a lot”).
Americans believe that the country should set stricter building standards and provide disaster relief funding in high-risk areas. Americans are open to a variety of policies to help those in disaster-prone areas prepare for or recover from extreme weather. Clear majorities favor stricter building standards and financial assistance for people to rebuild, while Americans also tilt in favor of the government helping to cover the rising cost of homeowners insurance and banning new construction in these areas. Requiring people to move out of these areas, however, is a non-starter for the public.
Below are Americans’ ratings of different policy solutions for communities in places at high risk of extreme weather:
- Set stricter building standards for new construction – 77% good idea / 8% bad idea
- Provide financial assistance for people to rebuild – 64% good idea / 15% bad idea
- Help cover the rising cost of homeowners insurance – 41% good idea / 34% bad idea
- Ban new construction – 39% good idea / 28% bad idea
- Purchase people’s homes so they can buy in lower-risk areas – 28% good idea / 36% bad idea
- Require people to move out – 14% good idea / 49% bad idea
Data for Progress – Voters widely agree that the federal government should keep backing clean energy loans [Article, Crosstabs]
Following balanced debate, voters clearly prefer to maintain funding for the Department of Energy’s clean energy loans. Amid proposed cuts in the Republican reconciliation bill that threaten the future of the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO), Data for Progress finds that voters overwhelmingly agree that the government should continue to help finance clean energy development.
After a simulated debate on the topic, voters side more with an argument in favor of DOE clean energy loans by a two-to-one margin (61%-29%). Below is the information that voters were provided:
“The U.S. Department of Energy provides government-backed loans to support the development of innovative clean energy technologies.
Supporters believe that the Department of Energy should provide loans to promote clean energy innovation and make the U.S. a global clean energy technology leader.
Opponents believe that the Department of Energy should not use taxpayer funds to support clean energy technologies, and instead should leave such investments to the private sector.”
Similarly, when informed that Congress is currently considering eliminating funding for these loans, voters are nearly twice as likely to say that this funding should be kept in place (58%) than to say that it should be eliminated (31%).
Democrats (75% keep / 15% eliminate) and independents (59% keep / 28% eliminate) both support maintaining clean energy loan funding by wide margins, while Republicans are more divided on the topic (40% keep / 50% eliminate).
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