This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polls of Western voters and young conservatives.

The latest “State of the Rockies” poll finds that Western voters across party lines rate conservation issues as an important factor in their vote this year. For the first time in the poll’s history, the majority of Republicans say that conservation should be prioritized over maximizing fossil fuel production. 90% of voters in Western States support requiring oil and gas companies, rather than federal and state governments, to pay for all of the clean-up and land restoration costs after drilling is finished.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polling on ESG/responsible investing, offshore wind, electric vehicles, and the Green New Deal.

Cultural attitudes drive the partisan split on electric vehicles, as Democrats and Republicans disagree more about whether electric vehicles are for “people like them” than on any of the specific benefits or downsides of EVs. In this new survey of Americans with household incomes of $50,000 or more (intended to approximate the market for new cars in the U.S.), Democrats and Republicans have very similar answers when asked to name their two greatest concerns about owning an electric vehicle.

Americans in coastal counties have overwhelmingly positive attitudes about offshore wind energy and support offshore wind near where they live. Energy independence is a strong rationale for expanding offshore wind, though there are concerns about impacts on wildlife. Surveying Americans who live in coastal counties, they find that these Americans have overwhelmingly positive attitudes about offshore wind and its expansion – including in their own areas: 68% support the construction of offshore wind farms to harness wind; energy in U.S.

Voters consistently support the idea of a Green New Deal when they learn what it would contain. Nearly two-thirds of voters (65%) – including majorities of Democrats (85%) and independents (64%), as well as a plurality of Republicans (45%) – support a Green New Deal when provided with the information below. Support for the Green New Deal also stands up to scrutiny.

Voters widely support “responsible investing” rules from the SEC that require businesses to disclose climate-related financial risks. Few are hearing negative information about ESG. Just over seven in ten voters (71%) – including majorities of Democrats (80%), independents (69%), and Republicans (64%) – say that they support “responsible investing” based on the description below. Majorities also support the proposed SEC rule to require disclosure of climate-related financial risks when they learn about the rule.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including a new update of Yale’s Climate Opinion Maps with estimates of climate attitudes down to local geographies, new polling on Americans’ top issue concerns, and new polling on the electricity grid and clean energy transition.

Americans are widely concerned about aging and unreliable electric grid infrastructure. Grid reliability, along with health and jobs, is a key argument in favor of transitioning to clean energy.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including a new analysis of the impact of voters’ climate attitudes on the 2020 presidential election results, new polling on electric vehicles, new polling on competitiveness with China on clean energy, and a new analysis of climate justice attitudes across Yale and George Mason’s “Six Americas” segments.