POLL: Voters Soundly Reject MAGA Republican ‘Project 2025’ Plan in Favor of President Biden’s Clean Energy Plan

Even Republican voters reject key planks of extreme Heritage Foundation-authored energy plan

Washington, D.C. – A new survey released today by Data for Progress and Climate Power found that voters soundly reject the “Project 2025” energy plan authored by the Heritage Foundation and other polluter-funded, climate-denying organizations. Voters reject key planks of the plan – often by large margins, and, overall, would be less likely to support a candidate who backs the MAGA Republican plan by a 16-point margin (51% to 35%). And by a 14-point margin (55% to 41%), voters say climate change is serious and urgent, not “mild and manageable,” as the plan’s author contends. 

“Project 2025 is a dream for polluters, but it would be a nightmare for our country,” said Climate Power deputy executive director Claire Moser. “When given a choice between maintaining President Biden’s clean energy plan and this extreme MAGA Republican plan to roll back climate progress and key environmental protections, voters strongly support the clean energy transition that is already under way. Even a majority of Republican voters reject key elements of this extreme plan – and it will be a political liability for GOP candidates running in 2024.”

“Heading into the 2024 election, Republican candidates and conservative think tanks are already proposing dangerous anti-climate policies that would roll back the progress our country has made over the last decade,” said Data for Progress executive director Danielle Deiseroth. “Our polling consistently shows that voters want to protect the jobs and savings that the Inflation Reduction Act has already brought to Americans from coast to coast. Any candidate who prioritizes the interests of the fossil fuel industry over creating clean energy jobs and protecting the environment is out of step with what the majority of Americans want in a national leader.”

Given a Choice, Voters Prefer Biden’s Clean Energy Plan to MAGA Republican Plan

By wide margins in head-to-head tests, voters favor elements of President Biden’s clean energy plan and reject key planks of the Project 2025 plan, including:

• Repealing consumer tax credits and rebates passed as part of the clean energy plan (66% to 19%);
• Repealing tax credits for clean energy companies passed as part of the clean energy plan (59% to 28%);
• Downsizing the EPA and beginning a “pause and review” of major environmental regulations (61% to 31%); 
• Eliminating environmental justice mandates (69% to 21%);
• Abolishing regulations on fossil-fuel-fired power plants to reduce carbon emissions (58% to 31%);
• Pulling out of the Paris climate agreement (55% to 34%); 
• Removing protections from national parks, monuments, and other public lands (75% to 17%); and 
• Eliminating the EPA’s existing standards on vehicle carbon pollution (59% to 30%).

By a narrower margin, voters also support minimizing new oil and gas drilling in favor expanding clean energy.

MAGA Republicans’ Plan is a Political Liability for Candidates

Voters support climate action and the clean energy transition, so the MAGA Republicans’ plan creates a political liability for candidates who back it. By a 16-point margin (51% to 35%), voters are less likely to support a candidate who backs Project 2025. That margin grows to 21 points among Independent voters.

Other Elements of the MAGA Republicans’ Plan Stir Deep Concern

Voters also express deep concern about other elements of the MAGA Republicans’ plan, including:

• Eliminating the Department of Energy (DOE)’s ability to grant new loans to promising clean energy technologies, in order to prioritize the continued use of fossil fuels (67% concerned);
• Ending tax credits and other programs to support clean energy, which would result in the loss of hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. (75% concerned);
• Eliminating plans to combat climate and extreme weather, which would result in increased U.S. carbon pollution and more rapid climate change (70% concerned); and
• Prohibiting the use of scientific determinations to drive regulatory, enforcement, and legal decisions in the Environmental Protection Agency and across the federal government (70% concerned).

You can view a full memo on the survey’s findings and view the specific proposals tested here.