WASHINGTON, September 19 — A new poll finds that 53% of Americans are extremely or very concerned about the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence, up from 41% who said the same in 2025 — a twelve-point jump in a single year that puts public anxiety about AI’s footprint well ahead of where it stood when the technology first entered mainstream use.
The survey, released September 16 by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, shows the sharpest shift among younger adults. Concern in the 18-29 age group rose from 38% last year to 60% today, moving that cohort from levels similar to other age groups to the highest level of concern of any demographic measured.
Data centers sit at the center of that anxiety. Most adults are at least somewhat concerned about the facilities’ potential impact on local electricity prices, water supply, and power outages, the poll shows. Yet the same respondents are not uniformly hostile: about half feel the facilities will be at least somewhat beneficial for technological advancement and job creation.
Policy support crosses party lines
Regardless of partisanship, most Americans back policies requiring data centers to cover the costs of electric grid upgrades, use clean energy sources, and limit the number of new facilities that can be built. That consensus is unusual in a survey that otherwise documents deep partisan splits on energy and climate questions. Forty-seven percent of Americans now think AI will do more to hurt than help the environment, up from 33% in 2025.
The shift suggests the debate over data center siting and power demand is no longer confined to the communities that host the facilities. On climate more broadly, most Americans agree it is happening and is caused by human activity, a trend stable in recent years.
But the partisan divide is wide: Democrats are more likely than Republicans to believe climate change is occurring (92% vs. 55%) and is caused mostly by human activity (68% vs. 34%).
Extreme weather and insurance costs
Nearly all Americans — 94% — have experienced extreme weather in their community in the past year, and the vast majority believe climate change was at least one contributing factor. A third have seen increases in premiums or deductibles for homeowners or renters insurance as a result of extreme weather events, and a quarter have considered moving to avoid those impacts. There is significant partisan agreement on specific environmental policies.
Eight in ten Americans, including large majorities of both Democrats and Republicans, support protecting conservation lands and wildlife. A majority support enforcing strict clean air and water regulations (69%) and providing incentives for new renewable energy projects (63%), including six in ten Republicans and eight in ten Democrats.
Few support rolling back environmental regulations. Views on expanding U.S. oil and gas production have not changed from last year, before the war in Iran, and half of adults oppose auctioning off additional public land for oil drilling. With gas prices rising this year, including hitting a record Labor Day high, cost is an important factor in both reasons for and barriers to purchasing an electric vehicle.
Americans are slightly more likely to say they would buy an EV to save money on gas than in 2025 (74% vs. 68%), while about eight in ten across income levels cite the purchase price of a new EV as an obstacle. The poll was conducted by AP-NORC and EPIC from July 7-24, 2026, using TrueNorth, which combines a sample from AmeriSpeak, the probability-based panel of NORC at the University of Chicago, with a non-probability panel sample.
Online and telephone interviews using landlines and cell phones were conducted with 3,424 adults. The margin of sampling error is +/- 2.2 percentage points. What to watch next: whether the policy consensus on grid costs and clean energy sourcing translates into state-level rules as data center construction continues, and whether the jump in concern among younger adults reshapes the politics of AI infrastructure ahead of the next election cycle.
