New Poll Shows Support for the Green New Deal

The people are standing behind the Green New Deal. According to polling released by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication shows that 81 percent of respondents support the plan, which is affiliated with incoming members of Congress — most notably, New York's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

The poll took 966 registered voters, and asked them whether they “somewhat supported,” “strongly supported,” “somewhat opposed,” or “strongly opposed” the plan; specifically, the survey asked: “Some members of Congress are proposing a ‘Green New Deal’ for the U.S. They say that a Green New Deal will produce jobs and strengthen America’s economy by accelerating the transition from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy. The Deal would generate 100 percent of the nation’s electricity from clean, renewable sources within the next 10 years; upgrade the nation’s energy grid, buildings, and transportation infrastructure; increase energy efficiency; invest in green technological research and development; and provide trainings for jobs in the new green economy. How much do you support or oppose this idea?”

The majority of all respondents showed support — with 92 percent of all democrats, 88 percent of independents, and 64 percent of republicans showing support, either “somewhat” or “strongly” endorsing the legislation. 

While the minimal description provided with the survey set out to give the basics to the participants in the survey, in reporting their findings, the Yale Program admitted that they did not share that there was an association with democratic congress leaders — notably, the oft-controversial Ocasio-Cortez

Additional research also found that 82 percent of the respondents answered “nothing at all” when asked, “How much, if anything, have you heard about a policy being proposed by some members of Congress called the Green New Deal?”

While there is a notable partisan divide on the issue in Congress, this isn’t the first time researchers have found support for the policy across party lines; as HuffPost reported, a YouGov survey found that 38 respondents said they “strongly” supported giving any unemployed American who wants one a job “building energy-efficient infrastructure,” while 46 percent said they strongly supported levying pollution fees on “companies that emit high levels of greenhouse gases.”