Environmental Polling Roundup – October 9, 2026
Headlines
Searchlight Institute – Voters believe that we can lower energy costs and combat climate change at the same time, and are divided over permitting reform [Website, Topline, Crosstabs]
Insurance Fairness Project + Data for Progress – Voters of all party affiliations oppose immunity for oil and gas companies [Website, Crosstabs]
Navigator – Voters are angrier than ever about Trump’s handling of gas prices [Website, Deck, Topline]
Data for Progress – Voters support a “Green New Deal for Public Housing” when presented with a brief positive description of it [Website, Crosstabs]
Key Takeaways
Debates over energy costs and data centers are shifting in Democrats’ favor. Navigator finds that voters trust Democrats over Republicans by double-digit margins to handle gas prices and data centers, with Democrats’ advantages on both of these issues expanding since last month. Meanwhile, the Searchlight Institute finds that voters have more confidence in Democrats than Republicans to address climate change, pollution, and public health and also trust Democrats more to lower energy costs and meet America’s energy demands.
Democrats’ advantage on energy affordability reflects a drastic change since Trump took office again, and is driven by deep dissatisfaction with the way that the Trump administration is handling the cost of living and gas prices in particular. Navigator finds that three-quarters of voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of gas prices, including even a majority of Republicans.
Data centers also remain one of the clearest wedges between Trump and his base, with Trump becoming more vocal in his support for data centers in recent weeks even as Americans of all party affiliations increasingly oppose them.
Voters reject the idea of granting immunity to oil and gas companies for their damages to the climate. This is a pivotal time for the future of oil and gas accountability, with the Supreme Court hearing oral arguments in Suncor Energy Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County this week while oil and gas allies in Congress continue to push for legislation that would grant immunity to polluters.
The Insurance Fairness Project and Data for Progress find that voters of all partisan affiliations oppose the idea of granting immunity to oil and gas companies for their climate damages. Further, the large majority of voters–including most Republicans–say that they would support legislation in their state that would allow people and insurance companies to recover climate-related losses from the oil and gas industry.
It’s difficult to overstate just how weak of a position the oil and gas industry currently holds in the court of public opinion. The Searchlight Institute finds that voters now feel just as unfavorably about oil and gas companies as they do about pharmaceutical companies, and these two industries have been in a race to the bottom in recent years to be the very least popular in the country.
Good Data Points to Highlight
[Oil + Gas] The oil and gas industry is 19 points underwater with voters (36% favorable / 55% unfavorable) [Searchlight Institute]
[Clean Energy] Voters are more than twice as likely to have positive than negative views of the clean energy industry (61% favorable / 27% unfavorable) [Searchlight Institute]
[Clean Energy + Costs] 58% of voters agree that we can use more clean energy and lower energy costs at the same time [Searchlight Institute]
[Climate Change + Costs] 55% of voters agree that we can fight climate change and lower energy costs at the same time [Searchlight Institute]
[Oil + Gas Accountability] 75% of voters, including 67% of Republicans, oppose legal immunity for oil and gas companies that would shield them from being held accountable for climate disaster damages [Insurance Fairness Project + Data for Progress]
[Oil + Gas Accountability] 70% of voters, including 64% of Republicans, support their state passing legislation that would enable individuals and insurance companies that are harmed by climate disasters and extreme weather events to recover their losses from oil and gas companies [Insurance Fairness Project + Data for Progress]
Full Roundup
Searchlight Institute – Voters believe that we can lower energy costs and combat climate change at the same time, and are divided over permitting reform [Website, Topline, Crosstabs]
Voters widely believe that we can lower energy costs and combat climate change at the same time. The Searchlight Institute finds that, when voters are asked to choose between the two priorities, voters say that it is more important to keep energy costs as low as possible (56%) than to fight climate change (33%).
However, the poll also finds that voters reject this as a false choice: on another question, the majority of voters (55%) agree that “we can fight climate change and lower energy costs at the same time” while only around one-quarter (26%) say that “fighting climate change means energy costs will go up.”
Similarly, most voters (58%) agree that “we can use more clean energy energy and lower energy costs at the same time” while only 23% say that “using clean energy means energy costs will go up.” The idea that clean energy and affordability are compatible isn’t particularly controversial, either: majorities of Democrats (73%) and independents (59%) agree that we can use more clean energy while lowering costs at the same time, as do a plurality of Republicans (42%).
Most voters view climate change as a serious problem. The majority of voters (53%) believe that climate change is either a “crisis” or a “serious problem,” despite a deep partisan divide. Roughly three-quarters of Democrats (74%) and nearly three in five independents (57%) call climate change a “crisis” or “serious problem,” but only around one-third of Republicans (32%) say so.
Voters direct blame for high electricity costs at utility companies, and believe that stronger utility regulation is the most effective way to lower household energy bills. When asked to choose who they blame most when electricity costs go up, voters are much more likely to blame utility companies than any other group or factor:
- Utility companies – 37% say that they are most responsible for higher electricity costs
- The government – 17%
- Increased demand from AI and data centers – 14%
- Oil and gas companies – 8%
- Clean energy advocates – 4%
- Environmental advocates – 3%
Additionally, when presented with a list of possible actions that could help lower their energy bills over the next year, voters believe that limiting utility companies’ excess profits would be the most effective way to tackle the problem:
- Prevent utility companies from making excess profits – 21% say that this would do the most to lower energy bills
- End the war in Iran – 18%
- Upgrade the electricity grid to make it more efficient – 16%
- Ban the development of data centers – 11%
- Increase access to clean energy sources – 9%
- Increase access to fossil fuel sources – 8%
Voters have mixed attitudes about whether expanding clean energy will increase or decrease electricity costs. As this data shows, voters see high energy costs more as a function of corporate greed than of the costs of different energy sources. And while other polling shows that voters would much rather meet increased electricity demand with clean energy than fossil fuels, the Searchlight Institute finds that voters are unsure about the economics of expanding clean energy.
Three in ten voters in the Searchlight Institute’s poll believe that increasing the amount of clean energy in the U.S. would make electricity more expensive (30%), around one-quarter believe that it would make electricity less expensive (23%), and 16% believe that it wouldn’t impact electricity prices. Roughly three in ten (31%) admit that they aren’t sure what kind of impact it would have on costs.
Beliefs about the relative affordability of clean energy tend to line up with partisanship, and that is again the case here: a plurality of Democrats believe that expanding clean energy would make electricity less expensive (20% more expensive / 33% less expensive), a plurality of Republicans believe that it would make electricity more expensive (46% more expensive / 13% less expensive), and independent voters are divided (22% more expensive / 21% less expensive).
Voters trust Democrats over Republicans on issues related to energy and the environment. The Searchlight Institute finds that voters continue to trust Democrats by wide margins over Republicans to handle climate change, pollution, and public health, and Democrats now also have a crucial advantage on handling energy costs.
Below are the margins by which voters say that they trust one party over the other to handle different priorities related to energy, climate change, and the environment:
- Addressing climate change – Democrats +32
- Reducing pollution and protecting the environment – Democrats +28
- Improving public health – Democrats +21
- Keeping energy costs affordable – Democrats +13
- Investing in an all-of-the-above approach to energy – Democrats +12
- Lowering the cost of energy – Democrats +9
- Expanding current energy sources and developing new sources to meet America’s energy demands – Democrats +8
- Creating jobs in the energy industry – Democrats +6
- Making sure America has a reliable electric grid – Democrats +5
Americans are divided over permitting reform, as they want to maintain environmental protections and community input. Even after being informed that “building new new energy infrastructure, like power plants, transmission lines, or pipelines, often requires environmental review and government permits, which can take years to complete,” voters side more with an argument in favor of maintaining the current review process over an argument for expediting it:
- The current review process should be kept as is, to fully protect environmental and community concerns – 48% agree more with this statement
- These reviews should be sped up, even if it means less time for environmental and community input – 28% agree more with this statement
Voters are then divided (36% support / 38% oppose) on a proposal to change federal law to “speed up approval of new power lines needed to expand the electric grid, even if it means reducing the amount of time for public comment and environmental review.”
There is a clear partisan gap on the topic, with Democrats opposing this type of permitting reform by a 20-point margin (28% support / 48% oppose) while Republicans support it by a 21-point margin (49% support / 28% oppose).
Voters dislike the oil and gas industry as much as the pharmaceutical industry, while they have positive attitudes about the clean energy industry. In another sign of voters’ frustration with the oil and gas industry, the Searchlight Institute finds that the industry is just as deeply underwater as pharmaceuticals. (Polling by Gallup in 2023 found that pharmaceuticals were the one major industry with a lower favorability rating than the oil and gas industry.) Meanwhile, voters rate the clean energy industry more positively than negatively by a greater than two-to-one margin.
Below are voters’ ratings of different groups involved with energy and the environment, along with pharmaceuticals for comparison:
- The clean energy industry – 61% favorable / 27% unfavorable
- Environmental groups – 56% favorable / 32% unfavorable
- Utility companies – 42% favorable / 48% unfavorable
- The oil and gas industry – 36% favorable / 55% unfavorable
- Pharmaceutical companies – 36% favorable / 55% unfavorable
Data centers remain deeply unpopular. Voters have deeply negative attitudes about data centers (23% favorable / 65% unfavorable) and about AI (33% favorable / 60% unfavorable), as majorities of voters of every partisan affiliation view data centers and AI unfavorably. Most voters further say that building data centers to power AI is a bad thing (58%), with only 21% viewing the expansion of AI data centers as a positive development.
Voters also continue to widely oppose data centers in their communities, whether the data centers are intended to power AI (17% support / 65% oppose) or online services like cloud storage (22% support / 57% oppose).
Insurance Fairness Project + Data for Progress – Voters of all party affiliations oppose immunity for oil and gas companies [Website, Crosstabs]
The fossil fuel and AI industries are both deeply underwater. Just like the Searchlight Institute, the Insurance Fairness Project and Data for Progress find that voters have overwhelmingly negative feelings about these industries. Oil and gas companies are 21 points underwater in their poll (35% favorable / 56% unfavorable), and they also find that voters are twice as likely to view artificial intelligence companies negatively than positively (29% favorable / 60% unfavorable).
The Insurance Fairness Project / Data for Progress poll also similarly finds that most voters have positive attitudes about the clean energy industry (60% favorable / 27% unfavorable), again in stark contrast to the unpopularity of oil and gas.
Voters of all party affiliations oppose legal immunity for oil and gas companies over their damages to the climate. With the Supreme Court hearing oral arguments this week in Suncor Energy Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, a case that centers on whether state and local governments can hold fossil fuel companies financially liable for the costs of climate impacts, theInsurance Fairness Project and Data for Progress find that voters reject the idea that oil and gas companies should be immune from this kind of accountability.
After learning that oil and gas companies have “pushed for legislation that would provide them with legal immunity from having to pay for the damages they have caused by worsening climate change,” three-quarters of voters (20% support / 75% oppose) oppose legal immunity for the fossil fuel industry–including majorities of Democrats (13% support / 83% oppose), independents (18% support / 76% oppose), and Republicans (28% support / 67% oppose).
Voters overwhelmingly support state legislation that would hold oil and gas companies financially liable for climate damages. Seven in ten voters (70% support / 19% oppose) say that they would support legislation in their state that “would enable individuals and insurance companies harmed by climate disasters and extreme weather events to recover their losses from oil and gas companies”–again including majorities of Democrats (81%), independents (66%), and Republicans (64%).
Navigator – Voters are angrier than ever about Trump’s handling of gas prices [Website, Deck, Topline]
Voters are angrier than ever about Trump’s handling of gas prices. Navigator finds that disapproval with Trump on gas prices (20% approve / 76% disapprove) is the highest that it’s been in their tracking going back to July, as is the percentage of voters who strongly disapprove of the way that he’s handling the issue (60%).
Gas prices also stand out as the one issue in the poll on which even a majority of Republican voters disapprove of Trump’s performance (39% approve / 58% disapprove).
Democrats are increasing their trust advantages over Republicans on gas prices and data centers. Navigator finds that voters trust Democrats over Trump and Republicans by a 16-point margin to handle gas prices (42% Democrats / 26% Republicans), after trusting Democrats by a 10-point margin on the issue last month.
Voters also now say that they trust Democrats more than Republicans and Trump to deal with data centers by an 11-point margin (34% Democrats / 23% Republicans), following a three-point margin in Democrats’ favor last month.
Data for Progress – Voters support a “Green New Deal for Public Housing” when presented with a brief positive description of it [Website, Crosstabs]
Voters believe that the government should be investing more in public housing. Most voters (56%) say that the government should invest more in public housing, including majorities of Democrats (70%) and independents (54%) and a plurality of Republicans (43%).
Voters across party lines support a “Green New Deal for Public Housing” when presented with a brief positive description of it. Voters support the plan by an overwhelming margin (72% support / 20% oppose) after reading the following explanation of it:
“Some lawmakers have proposed a Green New Deal for Public Housing, which would upgrade all of U.S. public housing stock to be zero-carbon and energy-efficient. To do this, the bill would create a series of grant programs to fund:
- Energy-efficiency upgrades to increase energy savings in all 860,000 public housing units in the U.S.
- Workforce development that creates good-paying job opportunities for public housing residents
- Solar energy for public housing communities
- Improvements to weatherize public housing to better withstand extreme weather”
Even with the “Green New Deal” branding, the idea earns majority support across the political spectrum with 83% of Democrats, 72% of independents, and 61% of Republicans in favor of the proposal.
Clean air and water, climate resilience, and energy efficiency rank among voters’ top priorities for new public housing. Voters agree that clean air and water, the ability to withstand extreme weather, and energy efficiency are all “very” important considerations for the government when building public housing:
- Clean drinking water and healthy indoor air – 76% say that this is a “very important” consideration
- Safety features like fire resistance and sturdy construction – 70%
- Withstanding extreme heat, flooding, and storms – 65%
- Energy efficiency that lowers residents’ utility bills – 63%
- Location near transit, jobs, and grocery stores – 58%
- Good-paying jobs for the workers who build it – 55%
- Keeping construction costs low – 49%
- Community amenities like recreation space and childcare – 46%
- Building as many units as possible – 38%
Voters believe that the long-term benefits of energy efficiency upgrades for public housing far outweigh the upfront costs. By a 55-point margin, voters agree more that energy-efficiency upgrades are worth their costs when presented with the following balanced arguments:
- It is better for the government to invest in energy efficiency upgrades for public housing because they lower utility costs over time and reduce pollution – 74% agree more with this statement
- It is better for the government to avoid spending on energy-efficiency upgrades for public housing because the upfront costs are high and that money could go to other priorities – 19% agree more with this statement
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