Poll: Nearly half of voters oppose Trump’s vehicle emissions plan

A large number of voters are opposed to the Trump administration’s plan to weaken vehicle emissions standards, a new poll released Thursday found.

Nearly half of voters polled, 49 percent, in the Politico–Morning Consult survey said they were either strongly against or somewhat against the plan to roll back the Obama-era national standards.

In contrast, 15 percent of voters said they strongly supported the plan, with a total of 32 percent polled supporting the idea.

The Trump administration formally announced a proposed rule at the end of July.The proposal will go through a 60 day comment period before the administration can formalize the decision to weaken standards. The proposed rule aims to dismantle the previous plan requiring automakers to almost double the fuel efficiency of cars to average about 54 miles per gallon by 2025.

When asked whether the economy, automakers or consumers would benefit or be hurt the most by the administration’s plan, there was no overwhelming consensus. Thirty-three percent of voters said the environment would be “strongly hurt,” the largest percentage.

The poll also found that the majority of voters believed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was lacking when it came combatting climate change, with 46 percent saying the agency’s work was “not enough.”

In comparison 27 percent of voters polled said the EPA’s efforts were sufficient.

The poll, conducted from Aug. 2 to Aug. 6, surveyed a group of 1,994 registered voters and had a margin of error of 2 percentage points.