Trump Might Finally Make Voters Care About Climate Change
The White House’s actions are making the issue relevant in ways they aren’t considering.
CLIMATE CHANGE DID NOT RANK HIGH among policy concerns heading into the 2024 election, according to a far-reaching Gallup survey. Just 21 percent of registered voters called it “extremely important,” while 29 percent said it was “very important.” The rest characterized the existential threat to humanity as either “somewhat important” (24 percent) or “not important” (26 percent).
But there are new factors that could make climate change—or at least climate-related issues—more pressing for the average voter. Take, for example, President Donald Trump’s clampdown on job-providing green-energy initiatives.
On Wednesday, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced he was halting an offshore wind project in New York aimed at providing energy to half a million homes. In a memo, Burgum claimed the pause was needed to allow an investigation into claims that “approval for the project was rushed through by the prior Administration without sufficient analysis or consultation among the relevant agencies as relates to the potential effects from the Project.”
Equinor, the Norwegian company building the wind project, is complying with the order, but noted that it had already put some 1,500 New Yorkers to work. Advocacy organization Climate Power estimates around 50,000 jobs have been eliminated or frozen as a result of the Trump administration’s cuts.
I discussed the situation with former Washington governor and 2020 presidential candidate Jay Inslee, who said Trump is “trying to put the kill switch on thousands of jobs all across the United States.” (The former governor now works with Climate Power.)