Americans used to be fairly united on the need to protect the environment through stricter laws and regulations. That consensus took a nosedive in the 1990s and has never recovered:
What happened in the nineties? To simplify: environmentalists turned left and Republicans turned right. It’s true that moderate Republicans still supported environmental protection throughout the decade, with 91% agreeing that "this “country should do whatever it takes to protect the environment” in Pew’s 1999 poll, but they were a dying breed. Today’s Republicans simply care less about protecting biodiversity, endangered species, and wild habitat than do most Democrats. They have other priorities, like the economy, inflation, immigration and crime. That doesn’t mean Republicans and Democrats can’t work together on environmental issues - they just need to get off their high horses and compromise more.