--- title: Climate Change: Donald Trump Environment Policies Unpopular description: The majority of Americans oppose President Donald Trump's plan to eliminate environmental regulations that combat climate change canonical: https://time.com/4665481/donald-trump-environment-dergulation/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-09T19:18:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:14:24.976Z article:section: Science og:title: Americans Oppose President Trump's Environmental Deregulation, Poll Says og:description: But that hasn't stopped his aggressive attempts to undo environmental regulation og:url: https://time.com/4665481/donald-trump-environment-dergulation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1d60ef4550faa709/6988b995cd1bbad3ee703eed/climate-change-environment-donald-trump-poll.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: climate change environment donald trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Americans Oppose President Trump's Environmental Deregulation, Poll Says twitter:description: But that hasn't stopped his aggressive attempts to undo environmental regulation twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1d60ef4550faa709/6988b995cd1bbad3ee703eed/climate-change-environment-donald-trump-poll.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Americans Oppose President Trump's Environmental Deregulation, Poll Says  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Feb 9, 2017 7:18 PM UTC  Protesters rally about climate change outside the White House in Washington, DC on Nov. 29, 2015. Protesters rally about climate change outside the White House in Washington, DC on Nov. 29, 2015.Yuri Gripas—AFP/Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Feb 9, 2017 7:18 PM UTC The majority of Americans oppose [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2016-donald-trump/)‘s plan to eliminate environmental regulations that combat [climate change](http://time.com/4663995/republicans-gop-climate-change-council/), according to a new [poll](https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2428), underscoring skepticism about an oft-repeated promise the campaign trail. The Quinnipiac University poll shows that 61% of Americans oppose removing regulations that combat climate change, with remaining 29% supporting the rollback. Trump has aggressively pursued deregulation in the environmental area during his first weeks in office, working with Congress to undo a slew of [rules](http://www.npr.org/2017/02/01/512799986/republican-lawmakers-take-steps-to-repeal-environmental-regulations) recently implemented under former President Barack Obama. The Clean Power Plan, Obama’s most significant domestic measure to fight climate change, remains on the books, though Trump promised during the campaign to undo it. The poll also found that 50% of Americans oppose reviving the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, compared to 40% who support the pipelines. Trump has already taken decisive action on both, directing the Army to issue the final permit for the [Dakota Access Pipeline](http://time.com/4548566/dakota-access-pipeline-standing-rock-sioux/) and inviting the company behind [Keystone XL](http://time.com/4102868/president-obama-rejects-keystone-xl-pipeline/) to reapply for a permit rejected under the Obama Administration. Most Republican elected officials at the federal level have rebuffed efforts to launch a full-throated effort to address climate change, but some have argued that the party is out of step with the American public on the issue. A [group](http://time.com/4663995/republicans-gop-climate-change-council/) of Republican elder statesmen on Wednesday proposed a carbon tax as an alternative to the Clean Power Plan. Their announcement noted the broad scientific consensus that the issue must be addressed urgently, as well as the discrepancy between party orthodoxy and the views of the general public. The national survey of more than 1,100 voters had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4665481/donald-trump-environment-dergulation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4665481/donald-trump-environment-dergulation/"},"headline":"Americans Oppose President Trump's Environmental Deregulation, Poll Says","datePublished":"2017-02-09T19:18:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:14:24.976Z","description":"But that hasn't stopped his aggressive attempts to undo environmental regulation","url":"https://time.com/4665481/donald-trump-environment-dergulation/","keywords":["Environment","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1d60ef4550faa709/6988b995cd1bbad3ee703eed/climate-change-environment-donald-trump-poll.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1d60ef4550faa709/6988b995cd1bbad3ee703eed/climate-change-environment-donald-trump-poll.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"climate change environment donald trump","caption":"climate change environment donald trump","creditText":"Yuri Gripas—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/environment/","name":"Environment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4665481/donald-trump-environment-dergulation/","name":"Americans Oppose President Trump's Environmental Deregulation, Poll Says"}}]}] ```