This AEI Public Opinion Study examines polls on the environment, energy, nuclear power, and global warming. In the first section, we look at national polls on the politics of the environment. Democrats lead Republicans by a substantial margin nationally as the party best able to handle environmental issues. Surprisingly, no questions were asked during the 2012 presidential campaign about whether Barack Obama or Mitt Romney would be better at handling the environment. The absence of questions tells a great deal about how little the issue featured in the pollsters’ minds in the 2012 election. A few questions were asked about which candidate would be better at handling energy issues.
We also include available trends from the major pollsters on how recent presidents have handled the issue in this document. Questions about President Barack Obama’s handling of the environment are not asked regularly by most pollsters. The President’s ratings on handling the environment have declined over the course of his presidency in most polls. In the latest poll from Gallup, taken in March 2015, 52 percent, down from 79 percent early in his presidency, said he was doing a good job handling the environment. Questions about George W. Bush’s handling of the environment were also not asked as often as questions about his handling of foreign policy or the economy, but he tended to receive negative marks on the issue late in his presidency.
The data show that the environment is not an issue on the front burner for most Americans today. In Pew’s 2015 question about priorities for President Obama and Congress, 51 percent said “protecting the environment” should be a top priority. As a point of comparison, 75 percent said strengthening the nation’s economy should be a top priority. Still, more people in 2015 said protecting the environment should be a top priority than gave that response about dealing with the nation’s energy problem (51 and 46 percent, respectively). Thirty-eight percent said global warming should be a top priority.
In general, Americans today are sympathetic to, but not active in, the environmental movement. In Gallup’s latest question, asked in 2014, 18 percent said they were active in the movement, while 42 percent said they were sympathetic but not active. As for evaluating the impact of the environmental movement, 76 percent told Gallup in 1992 that the movement had definitely or probably done more good than harm. In 2010, 62 percent gave that response. In 1971, 42.9 percent of college freshmen said that being involved in programs to clean up the environment was an objective considered essential or very important for them. In 2014, 26 percent gave that response. There is no indication from this poll or others that young people’s commitment to a clean and healthful environment has lessened. They, like most Americans, simply attach less urgency to it than in the past.
When the public cares deeply about something, as they do about the environment, they often give answers that are designed to keep the pressure on legislators. That doesn’t mean they are paying close attention to debates in Washington. The public rarely gives specific legislative advice about complex environmental policy debates.
This document includes six major sections – the politics of the issue, the significance of the issue, global warming, energy issues, gas prices, and nuclear energy. For commentary concerning each of these issues, see the respective sections.
For more polls on the environment, see the infographic: Public Opinion on the Environment.
Polls on the Environment, Energy, Global Warming, and Nuclear Power
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