Most disapprove of Biden’s handling of climate change, Post-UMD poll finds
Nearly one year after President Biden enacted a sprawling package to combat harmful emissions and boost clean energy, his administration is struggling to demonstrate the laws value to weary voters and stave off a widening array of new political threats. Most Americans 57 percent disapprove of Bidens handling of climate change, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll , which also finds that few adults say they know a good amount or great deal about the Inflation Reduction Act, a law that includes massive new investments in response to global warming. The low approval and lack of public awareness underscore Bidens top challenge entering the 2024 presidential race, as he tries to sell an unknowing electorate on an agenda that in the eyes of the White House has created jobs, boosted manufacturing and lowered costs for families. The Inflation Reduction Act couples the largest-ever tranche of climate funding with new government programs that aim to lower prescription drug costs for seniors and pursue unpaid federal taxes. Democrats adopted the spending package last August, overcoming more than a year of fierce bickering inside their own ranks and the staunch, unanimous objections of their Republicans foes. With the work to implement the sprawling law now underway, the White House has sought to emphasize its early economic returns. That includes more than $110 billion in new investments to expand clean energy technology and manufacturing, according to data released separately by the administration on Monday, which tallied private-sector commitments announced in the 11 months since Biden signed the measure. But the presidents pitch to sell these and other achievements to the public often has not resonated. Generally, voters today appear to have little confidence in either party to respond to global warming, according to the Post-UMD poll. Asked how much they trust Republicans to address climate change, 74 percent say either not much or not at all, compared with 59 percent who say the same of Democrats. While Democrats did secure historic new climate funding as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, the poll finds 71 percent of Americans say they have heard little or nothing at all about the package one year later. About 4 in 10 Americans say they support the law, 2 in 10 oppose it and roughly 4 in 10 are not sure. Support rises for some of the individual tax credits for electric vehicles and solar panels, for example that the law authorized. Its not breaking through, said Michael Hanmer, director of the University of Marylands Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement, which co-sponsored the poll. He added that the survey demonstrates Bidens lack of a simple, straightforward message about the benefits of the law for voters and its ability to help address climate change. Read the Washington Post-UMD poll results The low marks arrive as Biden ramps up his campaign to promote an agenda he has dubbed Bidenomics. The Inflation Reduction Act belongs to a series of sweeping spending packages enacted during his presidency, including the $1.2 trillion infrastructure law adopted in 2021 and a roughly $50 billion investment in computer chips that Congress secured last August. So far, the president and his top aides have made roughly 120 stops in nearly 40 states and territories to tout their work, with plans for Biden to visit Arizona and New Mexico this week. The two states recently have suffered through deadly, record high temperatures, and the president plans to emphasize the investments we need to build a resilient society, said John Podesta, his chief climate adviser, who briefed reporters in advance of the trip. Since taking office three years ago, Biden has described the planets rapid warming as an emergency warranting aggressive federal action. He has launched a White House office dedicated to climate policy, issued new policies in response to extreme heat, guided climate investments to the neediest communities and rolled back many of the deregulatory policies adopted under his predecessor, Donald Trump . But Bidens efforts havent always satisfied Democrats, some of whom have taken issue with the White House for permitting some new oil drilling. His prospective Republican challengers, meanwhile, have promised in the early days of the 2024 campaign to unwind much of the presidents climate agenda. Infrastructure and green energy spending are powering the economy At the heart of Bidens approach is the Inflation Reduction Act, which provisioned roughly $400 billion to spur clean energy manufacturing, penalize the worst polluters and help Americans afford greener technology, including electric vehicles and energy-efficient appliances. Coupled with other recent legislative efforts, the Biden administration says the full array of new federal climate initiatives can help the United States reduce emissions to half of their 2005 levels by 2030. This bill is the biggest step forward on climate ever, Biden said after its enactment. The work to implement these programs has fallen to several agencies, including the Treasury Department, which has issued a flurry of early rules that pave the way for businesses to obtain tax breaks for producing new wind, solar, hydrogen and biofuel-based energy. Many programs in the IRA had to be set up literally from scratch, Podesta said, adding that the spending is working as intended by fueling a clean energy boom in America and bringing with it good-paying jobs. The Department of Energy, meanwhile, opened the door in late July for states to provide $8.5 billion in rebates to residents who upgrade their appliances and make other energy-efficiency improvements to their homes. In a statement, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the money which could help Americans cover costs related to insulating your home, installing a heat pump, or upgrading to electric Energy Star appliances could lower monthly utility costs and lead to healthier homes. Still, many Americans remain unaware of the ways that the Inflation Reduction Act specifically responds to the climate crisis. One-third of adults say they have heard or read much about new tax credits for homeowners and businesses to install solar panels, the Post-UMD poll found, while a similar 32 percent have heard about the tax incentives available to help them purchase electric vehicles. Yet each of these initiatives on its own along with other climate-focused tax programs included in the law still has the support of half or more Americans including some Republicans, the poll shows. Taken together, the findings could suggest a disconnect between the publics assumptions about the law and its appetite for the very climate programs it authorized. Its baby steps, said Veronica Sweets, a 24-year-old delivery worker in Ohio, who acknowledged that she had not heard much about the law despite her interest in such issues. In recent days, Sweets said, the high humidity has meant the temperatures feel like they are over 100 degrees, leaving her sweltering in a highly physical job. Theres a lot more we could be doing, she said, and I really think we need to be doing more to save peoples lives. In New Jersey, Banty Patel said he favors a future powered by renewables. But the 40-year-old, who tends to vote Republican, said he is skeptical about the little he has heard about the Inflation Reduction Act and suspicious of tax credits that could be subject to waste, fraud and abuse. Hes just pushing tax credits, Patel said of Biden. Thats not the only way to bring about change. The very future of those tax breaks and other programs nonetheless remains in doubt, as congressional Republicans longtime foes of the Inflation Reduction Act have labored to unwind the law. Seizing on the annual debate to fund the government and avert a shutdown, House GOP lawmakers advanced bills last month that would rescind billions of dollars in funding and cancel entire climate tax programs. In doing so, though, Republican leaders have targeted some of the tax credits that their own voters say they support. Roughly 15 percent of identified GOP voters said they supported the overall spending package, the Post-UMD poll found, with higher rates of approval for its individual climate programs including tax credits for solar panels, which 52 percent of Republicans said they backed. The poll was conducted by The Post and the University of Marylands Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement July 13-23. The sample of 1,404 U.S. adults was drawn from the NORC AmeriSpeak Panel, an ongoing survey panel recruited through random sampling of U.S. households. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.