Mayday for the IRA
Welcome back to Data for Climate Progress — your one-stop shop for all things climate at Data for Progress.
Welcome back to Data for Climate Progress — your one-stop shop for all things climate at Data for Progress. Catch us here every month for our latest climate polling, juicy insights, and can’t-miss reading lists.
As always, we’d love to hear from you — drop us (Grace Adcox and Catherine Fraser) a line at gracea@dataforprogress.org and catherine@dataforprogress.org. Forwarded this email? You can subscribe below.
Before we get started, we wanted to share our congratulations and sincerest wishes to DFP’s Climate and Energy Program Fellow Eva Brungard, who just completed her Master of Public Policy degree! We are so proud of Eva and sincerely appreciate the dedication, adaptability, and research expertise she has shared with our team since the fall. Congratulations, and, while we will miss you, we are so excited to see how you advance clean energy policy as you embark on your next venture!
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The Council on Foreign Relations’ “Climate Realism” Is Anything But
In an opinion piece for Common Dreams, DFP’s Catherine Fraser argues that the Council on Foreign Relations’ new “Climate Realism Initiative” proffers a dangerous and ahistorical set of climate politics, washing the United States’ hands of any responsibility to clean up global emissions or cooperate internationally to prevent the catastrophic impacts of 3°C of warming. The piece contends that CFR’s agenda is as tone-deaf as it is without bearing in history, science, or morality. Read the piece here and join us in calling on the climate movement to swiftly denounce this agenda and work toward one that aims to avoid overshoot at all costs, repair historic injustice, and uphold the value and dignity of human life across the globe.
Voters Want the IRA to Stay
Despite polling from DFP consistently finding strong, bipartisan support for the Inflation Reduction Act since 2022, the House GOP passed a new budget reconciliation bill that would effectively kill the climate and clean energy components of the IRA. As the bill heads to the Senate, new polling from Data for Progress continues to find that the IRA enjoys strong support among voters and that most voters (58%) oppose its repeal. Even when randomly provided with either a description of both the bill’s health care and clean energy provisions (70% support) or one just on the bill’s clean energy provisions (61% support), a majority of voters support the IRA. DFP also finds support among voters for keeping the IRA’s clean energy tax credits, the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, and Community Change Grants in place. Read the brief here.
Most Voters Have Visited a National Monument and Don’t Want Trump to Shrink Them
With the goal of opening up more public lands for energy development and extraction, the Trump administration is considering shrinking the size of six national monuments in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Utah, including Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon. Building on research from earlier this year showing broad voter opposition to layoffs and budget cuts impacting public lands at the National Parks Service and Forest Service, new polling from Data for Progress finds that national monuments have broad appeal, with a majority of likely voters nationwide (59%) saying they have visited a U.S. national monument. When informed that the Trump administration is considering shrinking the size of six national monuments, a strong majority of voters (68%) are opposed to the move. This includes overwhelming majorities of Democrats (83%) and Independents (74%), as well as a plurality of Republicans (49%). Read the brief here.
Voters Overwhelmingly Support AmeriCorps, Reject Trump’s Cuts
On April 29, the Trump administration terminated nearly $400 million in AmeriCorps grants and placed 85% of AmeriCorps staff on administrative leave. AmeriCorps provides a wide range of direct public services to American communities, including building broadband infrastructure in rural towns, reducing toxic runoff into streams and rivers, and constructing affordable housing across the country. In a new survey, DFP finds that, after reading a brief description of the AmeriCorps program, strong majorities of voters across party lines support it — including 79% of Democrats, 73% of Independents, and 70% of Republicans. Read the brief here.
Republicans Repeal Standards for Cancer-Causing Air Pollution
Under the Clean Air Act, the federal government sets strict standards to limit the amount of hazardous air pollutants that industrial facilities can emit, known as the hazardous air pollutant standards (HAPS). These hazardous pollutants, like benzene and dioxins, are known cancer-causing agents, and it goes without saying that the less exposure that humans have to them, the better. Yet, it seems the current administration and Republican-led Congress’ approach to the environment is at odds even with something as commonsense as limiting the quantity of cancer-causing pollution that people breathe. In fact, Congress recently pushed to repeal HAPS, allowing companies to emit even greater levels of dangerous pollutants. Data for Progress polling finds that repealing HAPS is out of step with public opinion across partisanship, with nearly 3 in 4 voters (72%) saying these rules should be kept in place.
Voters Oppose Congress’ Proposed “Pay to Play” Amendment to NEPA
Signed into law in 1970, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) set out to limit the environmental impact of federal government actions. Amid a consequential Supreme Court case on environmental review decided this week, new polling from Data for Progress finds that a strong, bipartisan majority (73%) of voters support NEPA and its requirement that federal agencies study and report on the environmental impacts of their actions.
However, some lawmakers have proposed to amend NEPA and allow companies to pay an additional fee to the government to bypass parts of NEPA’s environmental review process, preventing environmental findings related to these projects from being subject to judicial review. By paying the fee, a company would be able to advance its project through the review process more quickly while limiting the ability of environmental and community groups to mount legal challenges against it.
When informed of this proposal, a slight majority of voters (53%) oppose it, including 60% of Democrats and 62% of Independents.
Now is not the time to stop standing up for environmental justice. As the Trump administration revokes policies related to environmental justice, which it equates to a “distorting, DEI lens,” DFP polling finds that voters support including an environmental justice analysis during environmental reviews. When provided with two statements arguing for and against the incorporation of an environmental justice analysis into the review process for infrastructure projects, a majority of voters (59%) favor the federal government incorporating environmental justice analysis into its review, while just 28% say the federal government should not.
Too often, we’re presented with a false choice of either building things we need – like clean energy – fast, or conducting thorough environmental and social reviews. But, in line with what Sandeep Vaheesan and others have pointed out, we really need greater state capacity to help expedite such reviews. But better capacity for quick reviews cannot come at the expense of democratic participation in decision-making processes that allow environmental justice and energy transition communities to better inform the future of where they live, work, and play. Read the brief here.
“Holler: A Graphic Memoir of Rural Resistance,” by Denali Sai Nalamalapu (Timber Press)
“The Real Path to Abundance,” by Sandeep Vaheesan (Boston Review)
“Gov. Healey unveils $10 billion energy relief plan for Massachusetts,” by Beth Treffeisen (Boston.com)
“The real problem with ‘climate realism’,” by Jeremy Wallace (Heatmap)
“They Poisoned the World: Life and Death in the Age of Forever Chemicals,” by Mariah Blake (Crown Publishing) and a bonus recommended book review!
