This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including polling on support for the Inflation Reduction Act, plastic pollution regulation, solar energy policies, and concern about climate impacts.

HEADLINES

Data for Progress – Two years after its passage, voters overwhelmingly support the Inflation Reduction Act’s climate provisions [Article, Crosstabs]

Yale + GMU – Providing a better life for future generations is consistently voters’ top rationale for addressing global warming; preventing extreme weather has also become a more salient reason in recent years [Article]

Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) – Solar continues to be voters’ favorite source of energy, with most saying that it’s good for the economy and costs; pro-solar arguments consistently win in head-to-head messaging tests against common criticisms about reliability, land use, and supply chains [Release, Deck]

Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) + Data for Progress – Voters across party lines support legal action to hold the plastics and fossil fuel industries accountable for plastic pollution [Article, Crosstabs]

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Solar continues to be Americans’ favored source of energy, and is importantly seen as both an economy-boosting and cost-saving energy source. A new, bipartisan poll commissioned by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) finds that around three-quarters of voters want their electric utility to use more electricity generated by solar power. Additionally, large majorities agree that solar power is good for America’s economy, creates good-paying jobs, and that increasing its use would save American families money.

Advocates should lean into narratives about the Inflation Reduction Act’s positive impacts for U.S. workers and manufacturing. Data for Progress finds that the IRA’s standards to ensure that clean energy investments go to American workers and U.S. manufacturing are the single most popular climate-related provision of the law. Voters also overwhelmingly support the law’s provision to ramp up American-made clean energy technologies, and around half believe that the law will cause the manufacturing industry to grow over the next few years.

GOOD DATA POINTS TO HIGHLIGHT

• [Inflation Reduction Act] Voters support the Inflation Reduction Act by a 71%-20% margin after reading a brief description of it [Data for Progress]
• [Inflation Reduction Act + Jobs] 79% of voters support the IRA’s standards to ensure that businesses receiving government clean energy tax credits pay their workers a fair wage and make their goods in America [Data for Progress]
• [Solar] 84% of voters support the construction of a utility-scale solar farm near their own community [SEIA]
• [Solar] 75% of voters agree that solar power is good for America’s economy [SEIA]
• [Solar] 74% of voters agree that increasing our use of solar power would save American families money [SEIA]
• [Solar] 74% of voters agree that their electric utility should get more of its electricity from solar power [SEIA]
• [Solar] 66% of voters agree that solar power creates good-paying jobs [SEIA]
• [Plastic Pollution] 70% of voters support officials in their state taking legal action against the plastics and fossil fuel industries for their role in plastic pollution, after learning that similar legal action is being considered in other states [CCI + Data for Progress]