As images of melting runways, broken railroads and raging wildfires consumed the world’s attention this week, Americans were at a standstill over how to slow climate change that scientists say is driving much of the extreme weather we are seeing.
The demise of US President Joe Biden’s climate plan, which would have injected about $300 billion in tax incentives into the renewable energy sector, subsidized the purchase of electric vehicles and accelerated efforts to halve emissions of the country’s carbon by 2030, he underlined the polarization. that still exists when it comes to prioritizing climate issues.
A poll conducted by the Pew Research Center in May found that 49 percent of Americans said the Biden administration’s climate change policies are moving the country in the right direction, while 47 percent said the opposite.
And while most Americans can agree that the climate is changing, they don’t always agree on what is driving that change and what to do about it.
An aerial view shows destroyed homes in a flooded area of Montegut, Louisiana, after Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana in August 2021. Nearly three-quarters of Americans said they experienced at least one extreme weather event l last year, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center. (Marco Bello/Reuters)
Along with political divisions, Democrats’ progress on the climate agenda has been undermined by the fact that, at a time of painfully high gas prices and inflation above nine percent, voters in both parties do not they see it as a top priority.
“Climate change continues to rank well behind inflation and gun violence as a top concern for Americans,” said Tim Malloy, a poll analyst at Quinnipiac University, which tracks of voters’ feelings.
“It remains an uphill battle to get Americans to focus on what experts believe is a clear and present danger.”
Quinnipiac and other recent polls rank climate change behind inflation, gun violence, immigration and election integrity as the most pressing issues facing the country. A CNN poll taken between June 13 and July 13, found that even among Democratic-aligned voters, climate change ranked fourth among the issues respondents wanted to address in November’s midterm elections .
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“The bottom line is inflation”
It’s that sentiment that centrist Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin tapped into when he failed to back his party’s climate plan last week, ensuring his defeat in the divided U.S. Senate. equally between Democrats and Republicans.
“The bottom line is inflation,” the West Virginia lawmaker told reporters earlier this week. “I worry about the person who can’t feed their family, who basically can’t put gas in their car to go to work, and who has a hard time paying their utility bills…I’m more worried about that than ANYTHING else.”
North Carolina’s Manny Villa, pictured on Capitol Hill, says he believes the intense heat many parts of the U.S. are experiencing will push climate change higher on people’s priorities when the midterm elections roll around in November . (Jason Lowther/CBC)
Manny Villa believes voters could change their tune in November. The North Carolina native who was visiting Washington, D.C., this week says his home state has seen more days with temperatures above 100 F (38 C) this summer than usual, and similarly unusual weather patterns across the country are attracting public attention. Heat advisories or excessive heat advisories were in effect in 28 states this week, according to the National Weather Service.
Excessive heat advisories and heat advisories are in effect this morning for 28 states, stretching from California to New Hampshire. High temperatures in the 90s and 100s will increase your risk of heat-related illness. For heat safety tips visit: pic.twitter.com/rFmVCKxDSV
—@NWSWPC
“I think climate change is going to have a bigger impact on the vote after this summer, when we’ve had record heat,” he told CBC’s Katie Simpson. “The economy will probably be the biggest impact, but climate change has to be up there.”
He would like to see more investment in wind, solar and nuclear power and more tax credits for residential solar, he said. “Anything they can do to increase the use of this.”
The speed of the energy division transition
How quickly to transition from fossil fuels is a polarizing issue in the US
Eighty-two percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters say they oppose phasing out production of new gasoline vehicles by 2035, while 65 percent of Democrats and lean voters Democrats say they favor it, according to Pew. poll.
Daniel Brooks, 42, is firmly in the camp that thinks Biden’s attempt to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels is too fast. The row crop farmer from Tate County, Miss., said he was against Biden shutting down the Keystone XL pipeline and the potential jobs that would have come from it.
“We’re very dependent on fossil fuels and we’re not yet efficient enough with our solar, wind and electric power that everyone can go there immediately,” he said as he, his wife and two children posed for photos outside the White. House this week. “It will have to be a slower transition.”
A driver pumps gas in Lynnfield, Massachusetts this week. Americans disagree on how quickly to move away from fossil fuels. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images)
Like a majority of Americans, Brooks supports the use of more renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.
“I farm and use a lot of fuel, and I agree that we need to be good stewards of our energy and our oil, but I don’t agree. [with] the way we’re going about it,” Brooks said.
“I think just cutting things right away is not the answer.”
Republicans and Democrats agree on some policies such as planting trees to absorb carbon emissions and giving tax breaks to companies to capture and store carbon, but differ on fossil fuels, with 76% of Republicans favoring more offshore oil and gas . drilling, compared to 27 percent of Democrats.
While no Republicans in the House or Senate supported Biden’s climate bill, younger Republicans support some federal climate actions, such as incentives for hybrid and electric vehicles and requiring that electric companies to use more renewable energy, said Cary Funk, Pew’s director of science. and the research of society.
Younger Democrats, meanwhile, say even the policies that failed to pass Congress don’t go far enough.
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Most have experienced extreme weather
The Pew survey found that a majority of Americans (71 percent) say their community has experienced extreme weather in the past year, such as droughts, floods or unusually hot weather. Whether or not they associate these events with climate change may determine whether or not they support policies to address them.
Interventions to slow climate change are still viewed by many Americans as harmful to the economy, says Samatha Gross, director of the Energy Security and Climate Initiative at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
“I feel like we’re missing the fact that rampant climate change is terrible for the economy,” he said. “It frustrates me that we’re not more forward-thinking … We’ve focused on the costs and not the benefits.”
Anthony Harris wipes sweat from his face during an excessive heat advisory in San Antonio, Texas, on Tuesday. About a third of the US population was under a heat advisory or excessive heat warning this week, according to the National Weather Service. (Lisa Krantz/Reuters)
Although Biden vowed Wednesday to “not take no for an answer” and use his executive powers to push his climate agenda, Gross fears the U.S. may have missed an opportunity to pass federal legislation beyond the Employment and infrastructure investment law approved last year, which Expand funding for clean energy technologies and infrastructure.
While states can enact their own laws, there are areas where federal standards can make a difference, Gross said.
“Transportation is the largest emissions sector in the United States, and a lot of things in transportation are necessarily federal, like fuel efficiency standards,” he said. “Also, things like cap and trade … if you really want an economy-wide carbon price that allows offsets across sectors, that’s a federal issue.”
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Some states are not waiting for federal action
Federal legislation can also be harder to undo than at the state level, Gross said, although the recent one EPA ruling The lowering of federal limits on emissions from power plants shows that this is not always the case.
In Manchin’s home state of West Virginia, for example, Republicans this year tried unsuccessfully to repeal the Virginia Clean Economy Act that Democrats had introduced two years earlier, which commits companies to not emit carbon by 2050.
Manchin cited high utility bills as one of the reasons he was not ready to…