Fueling The Conversation, Week of June 30th, 2025
As Congress works through the One Big Beautiful Bill this week, the best argument for repealing the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) energy subsidies is simple: it’s what voters want.
President Trump ran on a platform of energy abundance. He promised to end both electric vehicle mandates and, as he called it, the “Green New Scam.” He was referring, of course, to the trillions of dollars in federal energy subsidies in the IRA. In contrast, the Democratic ticket (initially President Biden and eventually Vice President Kamala Harris) promised voters more of the same: promoting climate catastrophism and a whole-of-government approach to energy policy that would increase our dependence on China to meet our energy needs. The Republicans’ message of fighting high energy costs and tackling inflation brought on by the anti-growth policies of the Biden administration resonated loudly and clearly.
As we near the first Independence Day of President Trump’s second term, it’s worth checking on how Americans are feeling about his performance on energy policy so far. In a recent survey of 5,085 U.S. adults, the Pew Research Center found that Americans are largely aligned with the president. They want more reliable energy production, not wind, solar, and electric vehicle mandates.
In 2020, 79% of U.S. adults agreed that “[e]xpanding wind and solar is a more important priority than expanding fossil fuels,” including 65% of Republicans. In 2025, that number went down to 60%, with only 33% of Republicans now agreeing with that statement. As wind and solar becomes less popular among Americans overall, natural gas, oil, and coal have increased in popularity, rising from 22% of Americans advocating for “[e]xpanding exploration and production” in October 2019 to 39% in May 2025, with those numbers being 37% and 67%, respectively, for Republicans.
It’s encouraging to see that more Americans are starting to recognize that the promises of green energy are nothing more than a “mirage,” while hydrocarbons remain “dense, plentiful, affordable, transportable, and reliable,” as IER CEO and Founder Robert L. Bradley puts it. It shouldn’t be surprising that Americans are reaching these conclusions, especially as states pursuing net-zero mandates and renewable portfolio standards, like California and Connecticut, also suffer the highest electricity prices.
When asked questions regarding increased drilling on federal lands and whether environmental regulations could be slashed without affecting environmental quality, more Americans agreed with the Trump administration’s approach than the alternatives. According to Pew, 33% of U.S. adults support increased drilling on federal lands, 28% want to decrease drilling, and 19% believe the level of drilling should remain constant. As expected, support was much stronger among Republicans and older Americans. For environmental regulations, 54% of Americans agreed that “it is possible to cut back on environmental regulations and still effectively protect air and water quality in the U.S.”
Clearly, the Trump administration is giving Americans what he promised. It also happens to be what they want. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has moved to expedite the leasing process for oil and gas drilling on federal lands as Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced one of the largest regulatory reform efforts in history, cutting harmful rules that raised costs for everyday Americans without even improving the environment.
The same goes for electric vehicles. When asked whether they support “phasing out the production of new gasoline cars and trucks by the year 2035,” 65% of Americans said no. Again, the Trump administration answered these demands and fulfilled a campaign promise by signing into law a Congressional Review Act repeal of the EPA’s waiver allowing California to enact this type of electric vehicle mandate.
These results are exciting and show that many of our initiatives — including the Pipeline Protection Project and Save Our Cars Coalition — reflect the will of the majority of Americans. The poll results should also incite Congress to act and ensure these preferences are codified into law. Otherwise, much of the good work of the Trump administration will be at risk once he’s out of office. That’s also why we continue to push Congress to completely eliminate the IRA subsidies in the One Big Beautiful Bill.
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Fueling the Conversation, a weekly column by IER President Tom Pyle, offers a principled take on energy events. Energy underpins all aspects of modern life, so policies that artificially limit production hurt everyday people paying to heat their homes and driving to work. “Green” groups push these policies for idealogical reasons, but this column uses economic logic and hard facts to advocate for energy freedom.
