Location: National

This post includes a roundup of climate + environment headlines from this week’s public polls, good data points to highlight, and a full roundup with key takeaways from each poll – including new polling on the Build Back Better budget and a new Pew report on climate change attitudes in advanced economies across the world.
HEADLINES

Pew – Most Americans are willing to make changes to their own lives to help reduce the effects of climate change; ideology plays a larger role in shaping Americans’ climate attitudes than it does in other advanced economies (Release, Full Report, Topline)
Data for Progress – The Build Back Better budget enjoys broad support in U.S. Senate battlegrounds, other key states (Release, National memo including links to 12 state-specific memos and toplines)
Data for Progress – Voters overwhelmingly support additional funding (beyond what’s included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework) to fully replace all lead drinking water pipes in the country (Release)
University of Bath – Climate anxiety is a major stressor for young people; over one-third of young Americans are hesitant to have children because of the climate crisis (Academic Article in Pre-Published Form)

Key Takeaways:

Support for Biden and Democrats’ new economic plan is vast, with seven in ten Americans in support of it.
Lowering prescription drug prices and expanding Medicare to include vision, dental, and hearing coverage are the most broadly supported proposals for new economic legislation.
Nearly three in four say it is urgent that the House and Senate pass this legislation.

This post includes a roundup of climate + environment headlines from this week’s public polls, good data points to highlight, and a full roundup with key takeaways from each poll – including new polls on the Build Back Better budget, a study on the impact of language in the natural gas debate, and extreme weather polling.
HEADLINES

Navigator – Specific details engender broad support for the Build Back Better budget, even when it’s framed as a Democratic bill (Release, Slide Deck, Topline)
Washington Post/ABC News – The Build Back Better budget has slim majority support when described as $3.5 trillion in spending for “expanded social programs, educational assistance and programs to address climate change” (Topline, Crosstabs)
No Labels & American Action Network – Opposition polls claim that Americans want to pause on the kind of government spending included in the Build Back Better budget (Axios Article on No Labels Poll, No Labels Release, American Action Network Release)
Yale Program on Climate Change Communication – Language used to describe gas as an energy source is hugely impactful in shaping opinions; Americans have positive attitudes about “natural gas,” but not about methane (Academic Paper, YPCCC Article)
Economist/YouGov – Americans continue to attribute recent extreme weather events more to climate change than natural patterns; nearly one in four say they were personally impacted by Eastern seaboard hurricanes (Topline, Crosstabs)

This post includes a roundup of climate + environment headlines from this week’s public polls, good data points to highlight, and a full roundup including key takeaways from each poll.
HEADLINES

YouGov – Partisanship drives Americans’ perceptions of weather (Article)
Navigator – The Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework remains popular (Release, Slide Deck)
POLITICO/Morning Consult – Renewable energy investment ranks among the most popular provisions in the Build Back Better budget; infrastructure has the public’s attention, but the IPCC report hasn’t broken through (Crosstabs)
Data for Progress + Invest in America – Grid modernization is an overwhelmingly popular selling point for the Build Back Better budget (Release, Topline)
Data for Progress – Voters widely support corporate climate accountability along the lines of the Polluters Pay Climate Fund Act (Memo, Topline)

This post includes a roundup of climate + environment headlines from this week’s public polls, good data points to highlight, and a full roundup including key takeaways from each poll.
HEADLINES

Navigator – There is stable majority support for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework, and voters increasingly recognize infrastructure as a priority for Biden and Congress (Topline)
Data for Progress + Invest in America – Details boost support for the reconciliation proposal; school modernization, grid modernization, and long-term care investments are especially popular (Release, Topline)
Fox News + POLITICO/Morning Consult – Reactions to the reconciliation package are heavily dependent on framing; voters have a mixed reaction to $3.5 trillion in “social infrastructure” from Democrats in Congress but widely support $3.5 trillion in “spending to address climate change, health care, and childcare” (Fox News Release, POLITICO/Morning Consult Topline, POLITICO/Morning Consult Crosstabs)
Quinnipiac – Most Americans believe recent extreme weather events are related to climate change; concerns about extreme weather are driven sharply by partisanship and geography (Release)
Data for Progress – Voters support ending fossil fuel subsidies, especially when subsidies are framed as unnecessary “bailouts” for hugely profitable corporations (Release, Topline)

Understanding the root causes of the climate crisis is important when thinking about the type of rigor that is required to organize for social change. The implications of understanding the systems of oppression that have led to climate crisis will inform our response to it, so it is relevant for advocates like us to explore this to ensure we are developing programming that is unapologetic about building the people-power necessary to win. People-power requires we understand how ALL people are affected by the issue at hand.
As we’ve seen the words just and equitable pop up ever more frequently over the last year, I often think about what that means for those who are the most vulnerable to climate disasters. A group of people I seldom hear spoken about are our comrades who are victims of the carceral system. This month we honor Black people and communities who fight for liberation and environmental justice. This month we celebrate Black August.
In this Insight, we will discuss Black August and its importance, racial capitalism and its connection to the climate crisis, the interlocking systems of oppression we face, prisons as sites of environmental justice, and abolition as a path forward.

Key Takeaways:

The large majority of voters respond favorably to the Build Back Better reconciliation bill when its main elements (including the cost and tax provisions) are presented to them.

Most voters say that climate change is responsible for extreme weather events and there is strong majority support for action on climate change. Voters say they are more likely to support the Build Back Better package because of its provisions on clean energy, climate change, and environmental justice.

The provisions of the package that lower costs for working families and seniors, including energy costs, are important to swing voters and offer a winning response to criticisms that the Build Back Better package will fuel inflation.

There also is a winning rebuttal to the “tax-and-spend” criticism of the package, focusing on the facts that (a) the legislation would be paid for by making the wealthy and multinational corporations pay their fair share; (b) no one under $400,000 will pay more in taxes; and (c) the long-term benefits will outweigh the costs because the proposed investments will grow the economy, create jobs, and help tackle climate change.

 
(This poll was collected by the Environmental Polling Consortium. If you would like to learn more about the EPC and receive weekly polling insights, please contact epc@partnershipproject.org)

This memo from the White House highlights public polling about key environmental provisions of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework (BIF), as well as strong poll numbers for climate-related infrastructure investments that were left out of the bipartisan plan. 
The memo shows that Americans broadly support a range of environmental policies included in the BIF:

Nearly three-quarters of Americans support replacing all lead water pipes and service lines (per Morning Consult)
The majority of Americans support investments to plug abandoned oil and gas wells and restore abandoned mines (per Morning Consult)
63% of Americans support robust proposals for transit and rail investments (per Morning Consult)
61% of Americans support investments to build new electric vehicle charging stations (per Navigator) 
61% of voters support providing more federal assistance to cities and states to improve the resiliency of infrastructure to extreme weather events (per Data for Progress)
60% of Americans support investing in clean energy to help avoid power outages, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and combat climate change (per Yahoo News/YouGov)

Additionally, Americans widely support several climate-related policies that are not included in the BIF:

64% of Americans support incentives to spur clean energy deployment (per Reuters)
Nearly two-thirds of voters support government action to move the country to a fully clean power sector by 2035 (per Data for Progress)
77% of voters support creating a Civilian Climate Corps of conservation and resilience workers (per Data for Progress)