Memo: Climate Executive Orders
By Data for Progress and YouGov Blue
As gridlock becomes the norm in Congress, the executive branch is an increasingly appealing vehicle for climate policy. We explore public opinion about a wide range of possible executive orders to reduce carbon emissions. We find that these executive orders have broad public support; voters remain supportive even after hearing Republican arguments against executive action.
Executive summary
Voters overwhelmingly support new policies to regulate carbon pollution and protect the environment, even when they are explicitly told that doing so would involve unilateral action by the president.
The most-popular proposals among those we surveyed include requiring pollution disclosure requirements of companies and reinstating prior efficiency standards, while more-contentious orders include an outright ban on new fossil fuel development on federal land.
Sizeable groups of self-described Republicans support energy and environmental reforms; about one in three Republicans support overturning decreases in fuel standards—even when explicitly told this would be a reversal of Trump policy.
Voters identifying as independent or with third parties resembled Democratic voters in their support for these policies.
A messaging experiment suggests that support for such policies is resilient to counterarguments involving either “process concerns” about executive overreach, or an argument that the private sector should tackle these issues.
