Environmental Polling Roundup – October 30, 2026
Headlines
Data for Progress – Voters are more supportive of speeding up permitting for clean energy projects than fossil fuel infrastructure or data centers [Website, Crosstabs]
Heatmap – Republican voters have become less hostile toward data centers in the last two months, though most would still oppose one in their area [Article]
POLITICO – Americans, regardless of their political leanings, say that they’re more likely to vote for U.S. House candidates who oppose data centers in their area and less likely to vote for candidates who support them [Article]
Data for Progress – Majorities of voters support offshore wind projects and oppose the Trump administration stopping Revolution Wind [Website, Crosstabs]
Oil Change International – Most Americans continue to say that the country should “transition from fossil fuels to renewables,” though they are split on passing new laws to “phase out” fossil fuel production [Website, Report]
Key Takeaways
Trump’s embrace of data centers finally seems to be shifting some Republicans’ views of them. Trump’s increasingly vocal support for data centers in recent months–including declaring in August that communities shouldn’t resist them unless they want to be “backwards and poor”–has begged the question of how long his base would continue to side against him on the issue.
New polling from Heatmap indicates that, while there’s still considerable daylight between Trump and his supporters over data centers, Republican sentiment is starting to bend back in his direction. Heatmap’s four previous polls on the issue, going back to September 2025, had all shown widening margins of Republican opposition to local data centers. Between Heatmap’s two most recent polls, conducted in August and this month, the Republican margin of opposition then shrank from 43 points to 24 points. The margin of opposition among Democrats, meanwhile, is nearly identical now (72 points) to what it was in August (75 points).
The poll still finds that most Republicans (58%) would oppose a data center in their area, as would 71% of voters overall. However, this is the first real indication we’ve seen that voters’ attitudes about data centers–which had previously bucked everything we’ve come to expect about public opinion by moving in the same direction among voters of all partisan affiliations–are running into the same hard reality of partisan polarization as for other major issues.
Data centers have clear potential to sink public support for permitting reform. In the first in-depth polling we’ve seen on the proposed permitting reform bill in Congress, Data for Progress finds that voters have very different reactions to speeding up and building new infrastructure depending on its type and purpose. While voters are about twice as likely to say that permitting and approval for solar and wind should be sped up than slowed down, they have more mixed feelings about speeding up fossil fuel infrastructure.
The poll also illustrates how quickly support for permitting reform could collapse if voters see it as aiding the data center buildout. In a split-sample experiment, Data for Progress asked half of respondents about building a new transmission line in their community to connect more clean energy to the grid and asked the other half about building a new transmission line to connect more AI data centers to the grid. While three-quarters say that they would support a new transmission line for clean energy (76% support / 15% oppose), support drops in half and most voters say that they would oppose a local transmission line if it were used to connect data centers (36% support / 55% oppose).
Full Roundup
Data for Progress – Voters are more supportive of speeding up permitting for clean energy projects than fossil fuel infrastructure or data centers [Website, Crosstabs]
Voters would rather speed up than slow down permitting for solar and wind, but have mixed feelings about fossil fuel infrastructure and would much prefer to slow down data centers. Data for Progress finds that voters are about twice as likely to say that solar and wind farms should be sped up than slowed down after learning that policymakers are considering reforming the process for approving and permitting large infrastructure projects.
Meanwhile, voters have more mixed feelings about speeding up natural gas power plants (26% prefer to speed up / 16% prefer to slow down), oil pipelines (26% speed up / 24% slow down), or nuclear power plants (22% speed up / 28% slow down). And more than any other type of infrastructure project, voters say that data centers should be slowed down (44%) rather than sped up (18%).
Below are voters’ preferences for the different types of infrastructure projects that the poll asked about:
- Roads and bridges – 54% sped up / 28% remain the same / 8% slowed down
- Solar farms – 42% sped up / 28% remain the same / 18% slowed down
- Wind farms – 41% sped up / 27% remain the same / 19% slowed down
- Electric transmission lines – 28% sped up / 41% remain the same / 16% slowed down
- Oil pipelines – 26% sped up / 36% remain the same / 24% slowed down
- Natural gas power plants – 26% sped up / 42% remain the same / 16% slowed down
- Geothermal power plants – 25% sped up / 37% remain the same / 16% slowed down
- Nuclear power plants – 22% sped up / 35% remain the same / 28% slowed down
- Data centers – 18% sped up / 27% remain the same / 44% slowed down
- Coal power plants – 16% sped up / 33% remain the same / 34% slowed down
Cross-partisan majorities say that it’s important to expand the transmission grid. Seven in ten voters (72%) say that it’s at least “somewhat” important to expand the transmission grid in the U.S., including large majorities of Democrats (67%), independents (71%), and Republicans (79%).
Voters overwhelmingly say that they would support new transmission lines in their area to connect clean energy to the grid, but would oppose new transmission lines for data centers. In a split-sample experiment, Data for Progress asked two versions of a question about a proposal for new transmission lines in the respondent’s community. In one scenario, the proposed transmission line would be connecting more clean energy to the power grid. In the other scenario, the proposed transmission line would be connecting more AI data centers to the grid.
In the scenario where the transmission line would connect more clean energy to the power grid, three-quarters of voters (76%) said that they would support it being built in their community and only 15% oppose the idea. In the scenario where the transmission line would connect more AI data centers to the grid, however, voters say that they would oppose it by a 19-margin (36% support / 55% oppose).
Voters see new clean energy projects as more likely to lower costs than new fossil fuel projects. Voters are 11 points more likely to believe that new clean energy projects would lower costs (51%) than new fossil fuel projects (40%).
Below are the percentages of voters who believe that different types of energy projects would or wouldn’t help reduce costs:
- New clean energy projects – 51% will help lower costs / 28% won’t help
- New infrastructure like roads and bridges – 42% will help lower costs / 35% won’t help
- New large fossil fuel projects – 40% will help lower costs / 36% won’t help
- New electric transmission projects – 40% will help lower costs / 33% won’t help
- New data centers – 23% will help lower costs / 57% won’t help
Polls this year have consistently shown that voters see clean energy expansion as a potential solution to rising utility bills, to a greater extent than additional fossil fuel production. A January poll by EDF Action in battleground states, for example, found that voters were 20 points more likely to choose clean energy projects than natural gas plants as the energy source that “would do a better job keeping electricity bills lower.”
Heatmap – Republican voters have become less hostile toward data centers in the last two months, though most would still oppose one in their area [Article]
Americans continue to oppose local data centers by a wide margin, though there are signs that the level of opposition has peaked. Heatmap finds that voters would oppose a data center being built where they live by a 50-point margin (21% support / 71% oppose). This actually represents a slight shift in favor of data centers since Heatmap’s previous poll on the topic in August, at which time voters said that they opposed local data centers by an even wider margin of 60 points (15% support / 75% oppose).
Heatmap has now conducted five national surveys about the topic going back to September 2025, and this is the first wave that didn’t set a new high for data center opposition.
Republicans in particular are not as hostile toward data centers now as they were over the summer. Democrats are opposed to data centers by about the same margin now (72 points) as they were in August (75 points).
There has been more of a noticeable shift among independents, who are nine points less opposed to data centers now (56 points) than they were in August (65 points).
The most significant change in recent months, however, has been among Republicans. Heatmap found that Republican voters opposed local data centers by a 43-point margin in August and now oppose them by a 24-point margin. The majority of Republican voters (58%) still say that they would oppose a data center in their area, though the percentage of Republicans who say that they would support a local data center (34%) has increased by 11 points since August (23%).
This rebound in data center sentiment among Republicans (and, to a lesser extent, independent voters) is almost certainly a response to Trump’s vocal campaigning for data centers. Between Heatmap’s August survey and now, Trump declared that communities shouldn’t oppose data centers unless they want to be “backwards and poor” and promoted data center expansion at a September White House meeting with AI industry leaders.
Trump still has a ways to go to bring his voters onto his side of the debate, as data centers remain one of the few major issues on which the majority of Republican voters haven’t fallen in line with Trump’s position.
POLITICO – Americans, regardless of their political leanings, say that they’re more likely to vote for U.S. House candidates who oppose data centers in their area and less likely to vote for candidates who support them [Article]
Americans are drawn to candidates who oppose local data centers, and less likely to vote for candidates who support building them. POLITICO finds that, on balance, Americans are more likely to vote for a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House who opposes local data center construction (47% more likely / 15% less likely) and less likely to vote for a Democratic candidate who supports local data center construction (22% more likely / 39% less likely).
Similarly, the poll finds that Republican U.S. House candidates stand to gain votes by opposing local data centers (36% more likely / 18% less likely) and stand to lose votes by supporting local data centers (24% more likely / 41% less likely).
These patterns hold true for 2024 Harris voters as well as 2024 Trump voters, who both say that they’re more likely to vote for candidates from their party who want to stop local data center construction and less likely to vote for candidates from their party who support local data centers. Harris and Trump voters also say that they’d be more inclined to vote for a candidate of the opposing party if that candidate was against building data centers in their area.
Data for Progress – Majorities of voters support offshore wind projects and oppose the Trump administration stopping Revolution Wind [Website, Crosstabs]
Voters widely support offshore wind projects. Data for Progress finds that voters support offshore wind energy projects by a greater than two-to-one margin (61% support / 25% oppose) in general, with majorities of Democrats (65% support / 17% oppose), independents (69% support / 20% oppose), and Republicans (54% support / 35% oppose) all saying that they support offshore wind.
These findings are consistent with public polling from other sources like Gallup, which found earlier this year that most Americans want the government to place more emphasis on producing energy from wind.
Voters oppose the Trump administration rescinding approval for the Revolution Wind project. Data for Progress asked respondents whether they supported or opposed stopping the operation of Revolution Wind after providing them with the following background: “The Trump administration recently announced it is considering removing environmental project permits in order to stop the operation of an offshore wind project known as Revolution Wind. This project began providing electricity to homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut earlier this year.”
In response, voters oppose stopping the project by a 25-point margin (31% support / 56% oppose). Democrats widely reject the idea of rescinding Revolution Wind’s approval (17% support / 70% oppose) and are joined by the majority of independents (29% support / 57% oppose), while Republicans are more split on the topic (49% support / 40% oppose).
Other polling has found that the Trump administration’s decisions to cancel clean energy projects are deeply unpopular when voters hear about them. A recent battleground congressional district survey commissioned by Climate Power, EDF Action, LCV Action Fund, NRDC Action Fund, and the Utility Action Alliance found that three-quarters of battleground voters (77%) opposed the Trump administration “using $4 billion in taxpayer money to pay companies to cancel and abandon new wind energy projects.”
Oil Change International – Most Americans continue to say that the country should “transition from fossil fuels to renewables,” though they are split on passing new laws to “phase out” fossil fuel production [Website, Report]
Most Americans continue to say that the country should “transition from fossil fuels to renewables.” Oil Change International finds that just over half of Americans (53%) agree that the U.S. should “transition from fossil fuels to renewables,” while only around three in ten disagree (28%) and 19% are unsure.
The language of “phasing out fossil fuels” remains divisive. Despite their support for the clean energy transition, the survey finds that Americans have mixed feelings about “passing new laws to phase out fossil fuel production” (45% support / 37% oppose).
Language about “phasing out” (not to mention “banning”) any type of energy source tends to alienate much of the public, as Americans respond much more favorably to the clean energy transition when there’s an emphasis on what it means more of than what it means less of. Pew, for example, found in 2023 that only 31% of Americans favored “phasing out the use of fossil fuels” over “using a mix of fossil fuels and renewables.”
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