In this episode, David Roberts is joined by Albert Gore to discuss the fate of the electric-vehicle tax credits under the Trump administration. Gore explains how the consumer credit provides a demand-side signal to complement the supply-side manufacturing credits, and why eliminating either would primarily benefit Chinese manufacturers.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polling about federal funding cuts, including to national parks and forests, and new polling about carbon dioxide removal (CDR).

The Public Environmental Data Partners are committed to preserving and providing public access to federal environmental data. They are a volunteer coalition of several environmental, justice, and policy organizations, researchers across several universities, archivists, and students who rely on federal datasets and tools to support critical research, advocacy, policy, and litigation work. To gather insights on what data to preserve, they reached out to our networks, which consist largely of environmental justice groups and networks, state and local government climate offices, and academic researchers. They compiled a large list of federal databases and tools, and prioritized them based on their relative impact, their confidence that we could archive them, and the relative effort it would take to obtain and archive them. Examples include: access to FEMA’s Future Risk Index, EPA EJAM, and more.

This map shows locations of electric vehicle charging stations around the U.S.

Voters know virtually nothing about carbon dioxide removal (CDR), but warm to it quickly when exposed to more information. Voters support the Carbon Dioxide Removal Investment Act by a 68%-19% margin after reading a brief description of it. Among voters who have any familiarity with CDR (including all those who have heard at least “a little” about it), impressions of it are overwhelmingly positive (56% favorable / 16% unfavorable). And after reading a description, around two-thirds of voters (65% favorable / 15% unfavorable) – including majorities of Democrats (70% favorable), independents (66%), and Republicans (57%) – have favorable opinions of CDR.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polling on federal government cuts, a new edition of Colorado College’s long-running “Conservation in the West” survey, and recent polling on extreme weather in California.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new results from the EPC’s collaborative Community Poll project, a new edition of Yale and GMU’s long-running “Climate Change in the American Mind” study, and new polling on federal tax proposals and the agencies and programs that could be cut.

California voters blame climate change and corporate greed for the rise in their home insurance costs, and most support legislation that would enable individuals and insurance companies to hold fossil fuel companies responsible for climate-related damages. The majority of voters in the state (57%), including 37% of Republicans, say that the fossil fuel industry is at least “somewhat” responsible for the recent L.A. wildfires. By a two-to-one margin, Californians support legislation that would allow individuals and insurance companies to hold oil and gas companies responsible for climate-related damages. Californians support this proposed legislation (SB 222) by a 60%-30% margin. The idea earns substantial support from all corners of the California electorate, with 78% of Democrats, 49% of independents, and 42% of Republicans in favor of it.

Voters are twice as likely to say that the government should increase than decrease funding for renewable energy and energy-efficiency programs, and a plurality want to reduce tax breaks for fossil fuel companies. Around seven in ten voters say that they feel favorably about renewable energy and energy efficiency programs (72% favorable / 19% unfavorable), including large majorities of Democrats (89% favorable) and independents (71%) as well as most Republicans (55%). When told that lawmakers are “considering funding levels” for a variety of government programs and investments, voters are more than twice as likely to say that the government should increase funding for renewable energy and energy-efficiency projects (42%) than decrease funding for these projects (18%). Around one-third of voters (32%) say that funding for these projects should be kept at current levels. Even among Republicans, who are less enthusiastic about these projects than Democrats or independents, only about one-third (33%) want to decrease their funding.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polling about the Trump administration’s actions so far on energy and the environment and new polling about Elon Musk and his influence in the administration.