Good Thursday morning. The New York Times reported that the Trump administration is drafting a plan that would repeal an Environmental Protection Agency’s 2009 scientific declaration on climate change, targeting “the federal government’s only tool to limit the climate pollution from vehicles, power plants and other industries that is dangerously heating the planet.” Today, we have a timely deep dive on Americans’ views on climate change and various energy sources. 1. Concern about climate change declines 2. Fossil fuels are seeing a public reprieve 3. Trump is above water in 27 states 4. What we’re watching 5. What we’re reading |
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1. CONCERN ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE DECLINES
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Shares of voters “very concerned” about climate change and its impacts |
Environmental advocates must acknowledge a new reality: Climate change is no longer as hot a topic for the U.S. public. According to our trended data, 37% of voters are now “very concerned” with the issue of climate change and its impacts, down from 44% in 2021 at the beginning of the Biden administration. In total, 67% of voters are at least “somewhat concerned” about the matter, a figure that has also declined, from 76%, since 2021. There have been modest declines in the shares of Democrats and Republicans who express high levels of concern about climate change, but concerns intuitively remain more pronounced among Democrats, who are three times as likely as Republicans to be very concerned about it. Interestingly, the bulk of the decline came among voters affiliated with neither party, whose numbers largely align with the overall electorate. Fewer voters also now say that climate change is man-made than did several years ago. Half of Americans (51%) now say climate change is being caused by human activity, down from 58% in a survey we conducted in 2018. As Americans have become less trusting in institutions such as academia and science, spurred in part by the pandemic and Republican rhetoric, shares of GOP voters and independents who subscribe to the scientific conclusion that humans have caused climate change have each dropped 4 percentage points, while the decline among Democrats has been twice that size. |
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2. FOSSIL FUELS ARE SEEING A PUBLIC REPRIEVE |
Shares of voters with favorable impressions of the following energy sources: |
As the public has become less likely to express concerns about the impact of climate change, they’re also viewing planet-warming fossil fuels such as oil and gas more favorably. And the opposite is true for high-profile renewable sources. While the majority of voters hold favorable views about power from solar, the most popular energy source, and wind, those ratings have each dropped by more than 10 points since 2021 as the shares with favorable views of oil (56%) and coal (45%) have each ticked up by 6 points. Accounting for the other side of responses on the other side of the scale, voters were 8 points more likely to have an unfavorable than favorable view of coal in 2021. Now, they’re 8 points more likely to view it favorably than unfavorably. The juxtaposition of these trends paints a mixed picture for Washington, the renewable energy industry and corporate America more broadly, as we explain in our latest memo on the topic.
Read it here.
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A MESSAGE FROM CVS HEALTH |
Where you get your medicine matters Whether it’s late at night, on the weekend, or when you need a trusted professional by your side, CVS Health is here when it matters most. Our dedicated pharmacists in your neighborhood make picking up your prescriptions easy and affordable. Learn more about how we’re working every day, with you, to keep you healthy, all while lowering the cost of care. |
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3. TRUMP IS ABOVE WATER IN 27 STATES |
Trump’s net approval rating in each state |
Last week we walked you through the standing of every governor and senator from responses collected in the second quarter, our first full look at how Trump’s presidency and other factors are weighing on America’s top state-level officials. Today, I wanted to flag some highlights from our tracking of public sentiment about the president himself, in case you missed it. I’ll be quick here because it’s easier to dig through the page for the numbers you care about, but the big picture is this: Trump’s net approval rating is above water in 27 states, up from 26 states in last month’s update. In Arizona, Trump is only slightly underwater, while he has a positive net approval rating in three other 2024 swing states: Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina.
See Trump’s trended approval rating in all 50 states here.
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A MESSAGE FROM CVS HEALTH |
Whether it’s late at night, on the weekend, or when you need a trusted professional by your side, CVS Health is here when it matters most. Our dedicated pharmacists in your neighborhood make picking up your prescriptions easy and affordable. Learn more about how we’re working every day, with you, to keep you healthy, all while lowering the cost of care. |
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Tariffs According to Bloomberg News, the Justice Department is looking at how to criminally charge people and companies that try to evade American tariffs, issues that “historically have been handled through fines or civil settlements and seldom by criminal prosecution.” Bloomberg News also noted that yesterday, Trump “suggested that he would not go below 15% as he sets so-called reciprocal tariff rates ahead of an Aug. 1 deadline.” (On Tuesday, Trump announced on Truth Social that he’ll impose a 15% tariff on Japanese goods as part of a new agreement.) Fed pressure Trump is poised to visit the Federal Reserve today to see the construction site of the central bank’s headquarters renovation. The president and his advisers have dialed up a pressure campaign “in recent weeks to demand Fed Chair Jerome Powell and his colleagues lower interest rates,” The Wall Street Journal writes. Next week, the Fed is expected to “hold interest rates steady” at its policy meeting, the Journal said. #NCSen Politico reports that Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley will run for Senate in North Carolina with Trump’s blessing after the president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump decided not to run. On the other side of the aisle, Axios said former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper plans to launch a bid next week. Epstein The House Oversight Committee’s panel on Federal Law Enforcement voted 8-2 yesterday to subpoena the Justice Department for files related to its investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, The New York Times reported, “precisely the kind of vote that Speaker Mike Johnson had sought to avoid when he announced on Tuesday that he would cut short the final week of legislative business in the House ahead of a scheduled five-week recess.” The panel also voted for additional subpoenas related Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell. In perhaps the biggest news of the day on this topic, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump was told earlier this year that his name appeared multiple times in the Epstein files. Redistricting Amid Texas’ ongoing special state legislative session that includes a GOP-led effort to redraw congressional district lines, Trump’s political team is pressing Missouri legislators to advance their own mid-decade map to net a seat by targeting Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, per Punchbowl News. As the outlet wrote, “it proves that Trump isn’t stopping with Texas when it comes to his push to claw safer seats for House Republicans in the midterms.” For your awareness, Sabato’s Crystal Ball has a great report on how, nationwide, “Republicans appear to have easier opportunities for drawing new gerrymanders than Democrats.” |
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