America Is Deeply Split On The EPA-versus-California Fight

No topic is immune from politics in this hyperpartisan climate, and now it’s seeped into attitudes about the current EPA-versus-California battle, according to a new poll.

First, a quick refresher. Earlier this month, President Trump made good on a long-standing threat to formally revoke a waiver that’s been granted to California for decades; the waiver lets the state set its own emissions standards for vehicles.

Add in the 13 other states that follow California’s regulations, and you have a car-buying audience so large that global automakers have no choice but to comply with these rules rather than the looser federal regulations. 

Trump and the current EPA administration have now moved to formally revoke that power, citing the preemptive powers of federal law over state and local regulations, plus cheaper and safer vehicles. 

The move was almost immediately met with a lawsuit by California and 22 other states (curiously that’s nine more than actually follow the stricter policies, but Minnesota and New Mexico have now indicated they too plan to follow California). 

Litigation between the EPA and the states could take years to resolve, leaving automakers and consumers in the lurch in the meantime.

But how do people — you know, the people actually buying the vehicles affected by these regulations — feel about this current fight? Curious to find out, we at Autolist.com polled more than 1,100 current car shoppers and asked them their thoughts on the issue. 

It turns out there are deep ideological divisions between Americans on the left and the right on the issue. 

As a group, 50 percent of all our respondents were in favor of California setting its own standards; 29 percent were against the idea, and 21 percent were unsure. 

But when you split those results by political party — another question we asked in the survey — the results showed quite a gap (we gave people the option of choosing Democrat, Republican, Independent, Libertarian, Green, Unsure, other or ‘Prefer Not to Say’ but for the purposes of brevity we focused on the first three). 

Just 37 percent of Republicans said they agreed that California should set its own rules That compares to 61 percent of Democrats who said the state should do so and 56 percent of Independents who agreed with the state’s long-standing ability. 

This ideological gap only widened with subsequent questions. 

Asked if they agreed with the current administration’s climate policies as they relate to fuel economy and vehicle emissions, 43 percent of all respondents said they disagreed with them, 26 percent agreed with them, and 31 percent were unsure. 

But when we split those responses by political party, 61 percent of Republicans agreed with the Trump administration’s policies, just nine percent of Democrats agreed with them, and 23 percent of Independents agreed. 

Things were equally disparate when we asked whether people believed climate change is caused by human activity. 

Overall, 65 percent of respondents said yes, 19 percent said no, and 16 percent were unsure. 

Independent voters posted nearly identical numbers: 65 percent said yes, 20 percent said no and 15 percent were unsure. 

But Democrats and Republicans were very far apart. 

Republicans were split on the issue: 39 percent said yes, 37 percent said no and 24 were unsure.

Democrats, on the other hand, were very much united. Eight-seven percent said they believed climate change was caused by human activity, six percent said they didn’t believe that, and seven percent were unsure. 

The poll was sent to current car shoppers in all 50 states who were at least 18 years old; the only state to lack representation was South Dakota. 

We also have data that compares people’s reactions to this EPA-versus-California battle based on which state they live in. We’ll delve into that in a future story. Stay tuned.