National Support for Energy Exploration Up
A new Pew Research Center study shows that as gas prices rise, so does support for energy exploration. Last week we reported that Rasmussen and Gallop polls had similar findings.
Forty-seven percent of those surveyed by Pew said energy exploration is more important to them than increased conservation, up from 35 percent in February. The percentage of Americans who favor drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is also on the rise. Half of those just polled said they favored drilling, compared with 42 percent in February.
Much of the increased support for exploration comes from groups who are more like to favor conservation, like young people, women, those with college degrees and liberals. Support among young people (ages 18 to 29) for energy exploration has pretty much doubled since February -- rising from 26 percent to 51 percent. Support among self-identified liberals has also doubled -- from 22 percent to 45 percent.
Drilling in ANWR is still divided along party lines. Republicans are still much more likely than Democrats to support drilling in Alaska's wildlife refuge.
Comments:
Posted 07/03/2008 02:22pm with
I wish those people would read this: http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo/otheranalysis/ongr.html
Even with drilling in those areas, it would still be over a decade before that oil ever hit the market. Not the quick fix some people would like you to believe it is.
Posted 07/03/2008 02:36pm with
Never mind the fact that Exxon has failed to develop Point Thomson, en route to the part of ANWR that the oil-fired wingnuts are talking about developing. It is only 23 miles from Badami, the next nearest oil platform on the slope, but for some reason they have sat on the lease for decades, not developing known reserves of valuable hydrocarbons. Could it be there is a windfall profit in sitting on these known deposits until the prices are unbearable? Oil companies wouldn’t manipulate a monopoly market for profit, would they? Not after a@@fuxing the people of Alaska using the corrupt Supreme Court to eliminate their penalties for the oil spill that sterilized good chunks of Alaska’s Prince William Sound?