Support for Energy Exploration At Highest Level This Decade; More Favor Drilling in ANWR
Pew Research Center -- Amid record gas prices, public support for greater energy exploration is spiking. Compared with just a few months ago, many more Americans are giving higher priority to more energy exploration, rather than more conservation. An increasing proportion also says that developing new sources of energy - rather than protecting the environment - is the more important national priority.The public's changing energy priorities are most evident in the growing percentage that views increased energy exploration - including mining and drilling, as well as the construction of new power plants - as a more important priority for energy policy than increased conservation and regulation. Nearly half (47%) now rates energy exploration as the more important priority, up from 35% in February (see chart above). The proportion saying it is more important to increase energy conservation and regulation has declined by 10 points (from 55% to 45%).
In surveys dating to 2001, majorities or pluralities had consistently said that greater energy conservation and regulation on energy use and prices was more important than increased energy exploration.
The latest nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted June 18-29 among 2,004 adults, also finds that half of Americans now support drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, up from 42% in February.
Related AP story here.
MP: Pretty amazing what a $1 per gallon increase in gas prices (from $3 in February to $4 in June) does to public opinion: a 12% increase in support in just 4 months (from 35% to 47%) for energy exploration, drilling and building new power plants!
7 Comments:
One must note the sample size: 2,004 adults
Can we really take this as a definitive statement on the sentiments of the American public plus or minus the conventional error factor?
That's a very typical sample size for national polls. Think of it like a blood sample - if the sample is random you only need 2000 adults to represent the entire population, just like you only need a small sample of blood to represent your entire blood supply.
I'll add my vote to the poll: Shut up and drill.
That would be a great bumper sticker.
Any other votes? Any other bumper stickers?
We need massive new dilling, nothing less will do. This just may kill some sentiment of those who speculate on oil futures.
Ans when oil is finally depleted in ten years or so, I'll be using a recumbant trike instead of a car.
I personally wonder just how accurate the Pew Poll really is or any of them for that matter?
I tend to look at Rasmussen's polling just because its easier to deal with...
Something tells me that the numbers of people who really want drilling when they think it through might just be quite a bit higher IF this particular Rasmussen poll is anywhere near accurate:
55 mph is So 70s: Voters Oppose Lowering National Speed Limit
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 59% of voters oppose the lower speed limit and 34% support it. Democrats are fairly evenly divided on the proposal with 43% in favor and 49% opposed. Republicans oppose the lower speed limit by a two-to-one margin and unaffiliated voters oppose it by a three-to-one margin...
June 29 Rasmussen poll:
Support for Offshore Drilling Dips Slightly to 59%
In both surveys, 87% of Republicans favor offshore drilling. There was virtually no change among unaffiliated voters either. On June 18, 63% of unaffiliated voters favored offshore drilling. On June 26, that number was essentially unchanged at 64%.
However, there was a significant change among Democrats. In the first survey, 41% of Democrats favored offshore drilling while 43% were opposed. After a week of the Obama campaign’s aggressive efforts opposing the concept, just 33% of Democrats favored offshore drilling in the second survey. Fifty percent (50%) of Democrats are now opposed.
Do we need more nanny state intrusion into our collective lives with the imposition of a national speed limit again?
Here's an ugly story from the Heritage Foundation:
Heritage Foundation: One New Crime a Week
There are at least 4,450 offenses in federal criminal law. That’s the number Louisiana State University law professor John S. Baker Jr., and his researchers came up with in a just-published report.
Baker’s work updates a 1983 count conducted by the Justice Department itself. That tally found more than 3,000 criminal laws — meaning that in just 25 years Congress has created some 1,400 criminal offenses.
Thank you, Mark,
Appreciate the information.
Lower speed limit to 45mph for highwys.
I plan on riding my bicycle to work.
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