Environmental and Sustainability Studies Program

 

First Advisor

Dr. Kyle Hull

Second Advisor

Gwendwr Meredith

Document Type

Thesis

Citation

Environmental Studies Undergraduate Student Thesis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2024

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between political partisanship and support for environmental policies at the state level in the United States from the years 2017-2022. To do this, the study focused on two policy areas, water and land, for the average proposed, enacted, and failed bills for all 50 states in the timeframe, with the states categorized as Democratic, swing, or Republican based on the 2016 and 2020 elections. While the study did find that Democratic states were more likely to introduce environmental bills than Republican states, the study also found that there was no statistical difference in the enactment rate of environmental bills between Democratic and Republican states. The study also found that there was a significant gap in the number of water bills proposed compared to land bills across all three state categories, as well as a general increase in the introduction of water bills over time. The results Page 3 of this paper contribute to general discussions of political polarization and environmental legislation, suggesting an issue with the perceived difference in the importance of environmentalism in different political ideologies. This study also contributes to the larger conversation of the issues of value-based framing in politics and continued polarization within the United States. The findings of this study have a number of significant implications for policymakers, voters, researchers, and the general public in understanding how to best approach partisanship issues in the pursuit of environmental legislation.

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