In a survey of 1,377 likely voters on August 1 and 2, Data for Progress briefly summarized the bill’s contents and asked voters for their views on it:

Some lawmakers in Congress have proposed the Inflation Reduction Act to lower costs for families. This bill will ramp up clean energy production, like solar and wind power, which will reduce energy costs and our dependence on foreign oil. It will also lower prescription drug costs and health insurance premiums for millions of Americans. It will be fully paid for by closing tax loopholes for corporations and the wealthiest Americans. It will reduce the national deficit by at least $300 billion. Do you support or oppose the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022?

Nearly three-quarters of all likely voters said they supported the bill, and only 22 percent said they opposed it. Even more than half of Republican voters voiced support.

The survey also asked voters for their views on a dozen specific provisions in the bill. The most popular: ​“standards to ensure that businesses receiving government clean energy tax credits pay their workers a fair wage and make their goods in America,” which received, on average across party affiliations, 76 percent support. Even the least popular provision still got 60 percent support: ​“consumer tax credits to reduce electric vehicle (EV) costs for lower and middle-income Americans by $7,500 for new electric vehicles and $4,000 for used electric vehicles.”

As Canary Media has reported, the bill also contains a wide range of other climate-friendly provisions, including ones to promote solar energy, energy storage, and projects to electrify homes and make them more energy efficient. 

A survey by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication asked more than 900 registered U.S. voters this question:

If given a choice, would you prefer to vote for a candidate for public office who supports action on global warming or one who opposes action on global warming?

The partisan gap in responses was wide: 87% of Democrats and 55% of independents said they want candidates who back climate action, while only 29% of Republicans did. Still, in today’s hyperpolarized political environment, it’s interesting that nearly a third of GOP voters said they would lean toward a climate-conscious candidate.

The climate crisis is not a top priority for voters overall, however, according to the poll. It asked respondents about 29 issues, and climate change ranked 24^th among the issues people said would be ​“very important” to their votes in the 2022 U.S. Congress elections. Again, there was a large partisan gap: 63% of Democrats said global warming would be very important, but only 12% of Republicans expressed the same view.

One issue that did garner broader support is the deployment of clean energy. The poll found that 81% of registered voters support generating renewable energy (solar and wind) on public land, including 96% of Democrats and 65% of Republicans. These numbers are consistent with other polling results we shared in a chart of the week that found sky-high bipartisan support for solar and wind power.