Location: New Hampshire

From our July 2025 study with The Alliance for Climate Transition (ACT), we found that residents in the US Northeast have little familiarity with Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), but are intrigued by the technology when it is framed around improved electricity reliability and lower utility bills. However, those perceptions are endangered by concerns that BESS may endanger their homes or entail high upfront installation costs.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls – including a new report from Pew on Americans’ attitudes toward different energy sources, new battleground polling on a potential reconciliation package in Congress, and new polling about carbon removal.

Legislation along the lines of the Build Back Better Act is overwhelmingly popular in key U.S. Senate battlegrounds, with clear electoral benefits for incumbents if it passes. On the specific question of how support for this legislation would translate to electoral benefits for incumbents who back it, the poll finds that voters in the four battlegrounds (Nevada, Georgia, New Hampshire, and Arizona) are 23 to 33 points more likely to say that the legislation would make them more inclined to vote for their incumbent than less inclined. 14% of those who do not currently approve of the incumbent say they would be more likely to vote for them if they help pass this legislation. Across the four states, 62% say they would be more motivated and enthusiastic about voting in the elections this November if Congress took action and actually passed this legislation. Democrats in particular would be more motivated to vote (81%), including many Democrats who currently express a lower degree of enthusiasm about voting.

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 lots of timely new polling on the Build Back Better plan.
HEADLINES

Yahoo + YouGov – Americans support Biden’s “$3.5 trillion infrastructure plan” by double digits, and a plurality support using the budget reconciliation process to overcome a Republican filibuster (Topline, Crosstabs)
POLITICO + Morning Consult – Voters widely support tax breaks for renewable energy in the reconciliation bill, even when it’s framed as a Democratic proposal (Topline, Crosstabs)
Data for Progress + Invest in America – Voters support the Build Back Better plan by a two-to-one margin after reading an explanation of its components; grid modernization continues to be one of the plan’s most popular provisions (Release, Topline)
LCV + Climate Power – Majorities of voters across Democratic-held U.S. Senate battleground states (AZ, CO, GA, NH + NV) support the Build Back Better plan after a brief description, and majorities also reject the idea of trimming the bill down; top messages focus on jobs, pollution/health, and lowering utility bills (Deck, Memo, AZ Topline, CO Topline, GA Topline, NH Topline, NV Topline)
Navigator – Climate is rising as a national priority; two in five voters say that weather in their community this summer has been different from past years, and most who have experienced unusual weather cite climate change as the reason (Release, Deck, Topline)
Data for Progress – “Green jobs” are a confusing concept for voters (Memo)
Yale Program on Climate Change Communication – Moderates have similar reactions to “climate change” and “extreme weather” as the rationale for emergency preparedness actions and policies, but there are benefits to using “extreme weather” with conservative audiences (Article)