Resource Type: Research & Articles

A significant portion of Americans are effectively politically invisible because their names aren’t on any major voter registration or consumer files that political professionals and scholars rely on. At least 11% of all Americans are unlisted, and an additional 12% are listed with incorrect addresses. Unsurprisingly, these groups of Americans report being contacted by political campaigns far less often. Further, by racial/ethnic breakdown, roughly 40% of Black and Latino Americans are “unreachable” (i.e., unlisted or mislisted), but only 18% of white Americans are. This unreachable group, as a whole, is much lower-income than other voters, is significantly Democratic in party identification, and holds more pro-welfare spending policy opinions. Overall, the over-reliance on voter and consumer file lists may perpetuate political inequality, but there may also be a political opportunity to engage with this “unreachable” group.             

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls – including polls on federal clean energy spending.

Voters in the U.S. largely support spending money on clean energy infrastructure investment as a recovery tool to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. Support is strongest for assistance being given to states that experienced recent extreme weather and climate disasters (80%), and nearly as many people (76%) support reinforcing existing and building new infrastructure that will withstand the changes in climate. Even more progressive policies like the multitrillion dollar economic stimulus focused on green energy receives support from the majority of voters (62%). Moreover, people support action being taken on these policies even when there is not bipartisan support from Republicans.

Climate Nexus’s national poll this month focuses on infrastructure but also touches on several other key debates over climate and clean energy.
The poll is also interesting in that it is one of the few public polls that puts clean energy front and center in its description of the American Jobs Plan, and even connects the bill to a 100% clean economy goal. Consistent with other polling that has found that climate and clean energy components enhance support for the American Jobs Plan, Climate Nexus finds that voters have overwhelmingly positive reactions to big investment in clean energy infrastructure.
Voters support the idea of “multi-trillion-dollar economic stimulus legislation that prioritizes investments in clean energy infrastructure and technologies” by a 62%-29% margin, and continue to support it by a 56%-44% margin after learning that it would likely need to pass with no Republican votes.
The reason that the proposal enjoys majority support, even when presented as partisan legislation, is that Democratic voters care more about passing clean energy legislation than Republican voters care about stopping it: Democrats support passing a clean energy bill on a hypothetical party-line vote by a 91%-9% margin, while Republican voters oppose it by an 81%-19% margin.

We celebrate Pride at the end of June to remember the Stonewall rebellion/riot to fight police oppression. I joined the LGBTQ movement and the climate movement because I want to end suffering and protect beautiful places and people. Both these movements are about health, justice, resilience, and liberation. As a queer climate advocate, I think it’s important to draw direct connections across liberation struggles, the fight for queer liberation and the climate justice movement, so we can build solidarity and sharpen our political analysis on how to win and expand a social base of power that sees our common interest.