More than 80 percent of registered voters support the Green New Deal proposal being pushed by progressional Democratic lawmakers, a new poll found.
The survey conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication found that 92 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of Republicans back the Green New Deal plan.
{mosads}The organizations behind the poll explained poll-takers avoided mentioning to respondents which representatives were backing the New Green Deal to prevent injecting bias.
Progressive Democrats like Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) and Rep. John Lewis (Ga.) are some of the loudest voices behind the idea, which has been backed by only Democratic lawmakers back so far.
“Other research has shown that people evaluate policies more negatively when they are told it is backed by politicians from an opposing political party. Conversely, people evaluate the same policy more positively when told it is backed by politicians from their own party,” the poll takers wrote in a blog post explaining its results.
“Therefore, these findings may indicate that although most Republicans and conservatives are in favor of the Green New Deal’s policies in principle, they are not yet aware that this plan is proposed by the political Left.”
The plan’s centerpiece is a goal of moving the nation to 100 percent renewable electricity. It would also guarantee jobs for unemployed people and boost energy efficiency and infrastructure.
Ocasio-Cortez and more than three dozen Democrats want the House to create a select committee charged with writing a bill to achieve the goals.
The poll surveyed 966 registered voters and has a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points.