Environmental Polling Roundup – February 23rd, 2024

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls – including new polling on voters’ relative trust in the two parties to handle climate change and the environment, as well as new polling and consumer data about electric vehicles.

HEADLINES

Navigator

Climate change ranks as one of President Biden and Democrats’ most significant issue advantages over Republicans [Release, Deck]

EDF Action

Republican EV drivers outnumber Democratic EV drivers in many states, based on voter file data and vehicle records [CNN Article, EDF Action Release]

[NJ] Rutgers-Eagleton

New Jerseyans are divided on the state’s plan to phase out new gas-powered vehicles by 2035; while they foresee benefits for health and air quality, costs are a clear concern [Release, including topline and crosstabs]

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Climate change policy is, once again, a key strength for Democrats this year. In asking voters who they trust more to handle various issues, Navigator finds that climate change and the environment rank on par with abortion as President Biden and Democrats’ greatest issue advantage over Republicans. This echoes what polls showed before and directly after the 2022 election, when abortion and climate/environment stood out as key drivers of support for Democratic candidates in the midterms. 

Partisanship appears to play more of a role in Americans’ attitudes about EV policy than in their personal vehicle choices. Despite consistent and deep partisan divides in Americans’ attitudes about electric vehicles, a new analysis by EDF Action combining consumer data and voter file data indicates that Republican EV drivers outnumber Democratic EV drivers in many states. These new findings suggest that, while voters tend to have reflexively partisan responses to the topic of electric vehicles in polls, their decisions are shaped more by practical factors such as costs and the availability of charging infrastructure when they’re actually confronted with a decision about what kind of vehicle to buy.