Few in new poll say Biden law has helped fight climate change
Very few Americans believe the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), signed into law by President Biden in 2022, has helped fight climate change, a new survey found.
The survey, conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs and Research, found that many respondents think the IRA has not made much of a difference on climate change, while still more didn't know enough to say what its impact had been.
Just 16 percent of respondents said the IRA has done more to help combat climate change, while 13 percent said it’s done more to hurt. Thirty percent said it has not made much of a difference, and 41 percent said they “don’t know enough to say,” the survey found.
When asked about specific initiatives included in the bill that aim to combat climate change, many Americans still said they didn’t know enough to respond.
Thirty-five percent of respondents said tax credits for renewable energy projects like solar and wind power have helped, the highest share who said so of any specific provision. On the other end of the scale, just 27 percent of respondents said federal funding for clean energy projects in low-income communities has been helpful.
Twenty-six percent of Americans said the tax credit initiative for individuals to make the switch to electric vehicles has made no difference, the most who gave that answer for any of the provisions that were asked about.
According to the survey, respondents said one of the most important things for the federal government to do is “invest in new, environmentally friendly technologies.” Fifty-seven percent of respondents said it’s extremely or very important.
Biden has touted the climate investments in the IRA as a means of boosting domestic manufacturing and creating jobs. The survey found that 34 percent of respondents said the law has helped incentivize companies to manufacture clean energy technologies in the U.S. instead of abroad.
A majority of respondents, 79 percent, place responsibility on the federal government to address climate change, but 56 percent say it's doing too little to address the issue.
The survey was conducted April 4-8 among 1,204 adults and has a margin of error of 3.9 percentage points.