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Most voters think federal control of the economy will either hurt the environment or have no impact

Less than a third believe it will be environmentally beneficial.

Published: February 16, 2021 10:55am

Updated: February 16, 2021 2:11pm

A majority of voters say greater federal control over the economy and individual lives will either hurt the environment or have no impact on it, according to a new Just the News Daily Poll with Scott Rasmussen.

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Just the News Daily Poll, Giving the Government more control good or bad?
Just the News Daily Poll
RMG Research

Forty-four percent of respondents said "giving the federal government more control over businesses and individual behavior" will be "bad for the environment," while a further 11% believe it will have "no impact."

Just 31%, believe more federal power would be environmentally beneficial. 

The responses come as the country is now being run by the Democratic President Joe Biden, who was vice president in the Obama administration, which faced criticism about regulating the country's fossil fuel industry, including carbon emissions.

President Trump, who followed President Obama and preceded Biden, attempted to lift environmental regulations that he thought over-burdened the domestic economy. 

The new poll responses, when broken down by party affiliation were, as expect, divided but not by a large margin.

Fifty-one percent of Democrats thought more federal power would be good for the environment, while 56% of Republicans though it would be bad. 

Notably, independents mostly sided with Republicans on the issue, with 51% of unaffiliated voters believing more federal power would mean more environmental degradation.

The overall number tracks closely with the majority of voters who believe more government control of the economy would have a negative impact.

The survey of 1,200 registered voters was conducted from Feb. 11-13 by Rasmussen using a mixed-mode approach. The full sample has a sampling-error margin of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

Click here to see the poll's cross-demographic tabulations.

Click here to see the poll's methodology and sample demographics.

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