Americans’ View of Environment Hits
New Low Ahead of Earth Day: Gallup

Max Rego / The Hill

(April 17, 2026) — A new Gallup survey found that a record-low 35 percent of American respondents rated the quality of theircountry’s environment positively, just more than a week before Earth Day.

The firm’s annual environment poll, released Tuesday, found that 43 percent of respondents rated the environment as fair, while 2 in 10 rated it as poor. Just 35 percent rated the environment as excellent or good, a decline of 8 points from last year and 4 points compared to the previous low of 39 percent dating back to 2001 — set twice, in 2009 and 2022.

Over the last 15 months, the Trump administration has eschewed renewable energy in favor of fossil fuels. It has eased standards for coal plants, proposed a massive expansion of offshore oil and gas drilling and has sought to export more domestically-produced natural gas.

In February, the Environmental Protection Agency repealed its own endangerment finding — a 2009 determination that gave the agency the ability to regulate emissions from new motor vehicles under the pretense that greenhouse gases threatened human health.

More than 3 in 5 respondents to the Gallup survey believe the government is doing too little to protect the environment, while 27 percent believe it is doing too much and 7 percent believe it is doing about the right amount.

The share of respondents who believe the government is doing too little to protect the environment is the second-highest mark on record, behind the 68 percent who said so in 1992. Last year, 57 percent of respondents to the Gallup poll said the government was doing too little to protect the environment.

There is a clear split among those with different partisan leans. More than 90 percent of Democrats believe the government is doing too little to protect the environment, while 67 percent of independents and 23 percent of Republicans said as much.

Nearly 8 in 10 Democrats, meanwhile, believe environmental protection should be prioritized over economic growth. More than 6 in 10 independents and 31 percent of Republicans have that same perspective, while 62 percent of Republicans believe that economic growth should be prioritized — even if the environment suffers to some extent.