Data for Climate Progress — End of Year Edition — 12.22.21

Welcome to the special year-end roundup edition of the Data for Climate Progress Newsletter, your update on new research, blog posts and memes from the Data for Progress climate team: Danielle Deiseroth, Julia Jeanty, and Marcela Mulholland. Trust us, we’re just as glad 2021 is over as you are. Join us as we reminisce on the good, the bad, and the Biden, and delve into the climate wins that give us hope for 2022. 

What We’ll Be Watching in 2022

• BBBA

  • The recent BBBA developments have been disappointing, to say the least. Manchin’s comments over the weekend were not positive, but they do not foreclose a bill getting through in the New Year. We are committed to pressing on and doing all we can to preserve the progressive climate goals in BBBA. A reconciliation path is not dead yet, and we can't despair until it's done. 

  • In the words of Rebecca Solnit, “Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency.” Clutch your axes everyone!

• Appropriations

  • In 2022, we are planning on engaging in the appropriations process using our polling to help justify climate-related appropriations requests and even submitting some requests of our own. We will focus our efforts on clean energy manufacturing, environmental justice and climate innovation. 

• Regulatory Action

  • We’ll also be continuing our Corporate Crackdown series with the Revolving Door Project and advocating for the Biden Administration to leverage the full power of the executive branch to advance progressive climate goals. The first installment, Protecting Workers From Corporate Crime, details how the Biden administration can tackle corporate crime and protect workers, starting with the Department of Labor. In the new year, we’ll be focused on regulatory measures for environmental and climate-related issues (think: EPA and DOI).

Polling: the Best of 2021

• Voters want Build Back Better passed with bold climate action at its core

  • While the future of the Build Back Better Act is uncertain, our October polling with Climate Power finds that voters overwhelmingly agree that the U.S. should be a global leader on climate change. We also find that the Build Back Better plan — including the key climate and clean energy provisions — remains popular, and voters want to see the Build Back Better plan take significant steps towards reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

• Make Polluters Pay

  • While for decades fossil fuel companies have evaded responsibility for their contributions to the climate crisis, voters now support making them pay for the damages that they have caused.

  • Our polling with Make Polluters Pay from August finds that a majority of voters think fossil fuel companies are responsible for addressing climate change and support a $500 billion fee on corporate polluters. 

  • Moreover, voters think it is important that low-income communities and communities of color receive compensation from fossil fuel companies to improve community health and sustainability. 

• Markey on the Blog

  • Young people have used their critical voices to ensure that bold, equitable climate investments remain in the Build Back Better Act. In an October DFP blog, Senator Ed Markey highlights how ambitious climate action can deliver jobs and justice to frontline communities.  Nearly three-quarters of likely voters (72 percent) — and an overwhelming 82 percent of voters under 45 — think it is important that government investments in climate and clean energy deliver economic benefits to frontline communities.

• Federal Procurement 

  • Among the most popular executive actions Biden announced this year was his order to direct the federal government to purchase sustainable and American-made products. This policy is widely popular, even across the aisle: 85 percent of Democrats, 68 percent of independents, and 47 percent of Republicans support this revamp of federal procurement policy.

Policy

• Made Clean in America

  • This year, Data for Progress and the National Wildlife Federation released a series of policy proposals and polling data on federal investments to kickstart clean energy job growth across America.

  • From shoring up domestic clean energy supply chains to reviving the 48C tax credit for advanced manufacturing, we have identified six key government investments to both tackle the climate crisis and spur economic growth. 

  • Despite partisan polarization around climate action, we find that Democrats, Independents, and Republicans all overwhelmingly support government investments to create new, good-paying clean energy jobs.

• Voters support ending fossil fuel subsidies

  • Ending fossil fuel subsidies is a popular idea among Democrats, Independents, and Republicans alike. In two July 2021 national surveys, Data for Progress assessed the attitudes of likely voters towards ending fossil fuel subsidies and regardless of the message, a majority of all likely voters still support ending fossil fuel subsidies, even after seeing negative messaging. Check out our blog for more details on this policy.

• Indigenous-Led Conservation: A Pathway Towards 30x30

  • Our memo on Indigenous-Led Conservation (ILC) details a path forward for meeting the U.S.’s most pressing conservation goals and forging a more modernized and inclusive model for conservation. 

  • Not only is ILC an effective approach to mitigating the effects of climate change, but it is also extremely popular amongst voters. 

• Progressive Guide to the American Jobs Plan

  • This summer, we put together a Progressive Guide to the American Jobs Plan to provide a one-stop-shop with polling and policy analysis on key pillars included in the American Jobs Plan. Our guide shows that ambitious, equitable investments in our human and physical infrastructure are widely popular across the country. Read the memo here. 

• RIP CEPP

  • Following President Biden’s commitment to transition the United States to 80 percent clean power by 2030, legislators introduced the Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP) to incentivize utilities to meet certain clean energy goals each year. The CEPP is now dead in the water, but it was both popular among voters and had the potential to catalyze new job growth. Our economic analysis found that the CEPP would have amplified the job-creation impacts of the 48C Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit for companies that build or retrofit facilities to manufacture clean energy technologies in the U.S. Read our memo on the job-creating impacts of the 48C tax credit here. 

• We <3 Local Candidates

  • We launched several new Green New Deal Slates of local candidates who are climate champions and raised funds to support their races. We hope to uplift more local climate champions in 2022. 

Greatest DFP Media Hits

• The Hill (Danielle and Marcela authored)

• The Forge (Danielle and Marcela authored)

• New York Times (DFP profile)

• The Hill (Marcela and Sean authored)

• The Hill (Marcela profiled)

• NBC (Sean quoted)

• Huffpost (Sean quoted)

• Rolling Stone (Danielle quoted)

• Sierra Club (Marcela quoted)

• Washington Post (Sean quoted)

• Grist (Danielle quoted)

• AM New York Metro (Marcela featured)

• Earther (Marcela quoted, DFP mentioned)

Meme