DRILLING FOR OIL
Among the U.S. public as a whole, a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center found support for ANWR drilling on the rise. According to a survey report released by Pew : "The survey finds that the rise in energy prices also has had a perceptible impact on public views of the tradeoff between boosting the energy supply and protecting the environment. A solid majority (57%) now says it is more important to develop new energy sources than to protect the environment, up from 49% who expressed that view in March. Support for oil and gas drilling in the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) also has gained, from 42% in March to 50% currently.1
No, this was not Pew's most recent poll. This was a poll from Sept. 2005.
Compare that to Pew's most recent poll as summarized in this Yahoo news article: High gasoline prices have dramatically changed Americans' views on energy and the environment with more people now viewing oil drilling and new power plants as a greater priority than energy conservation than they did five months ago, according to a new survey.
The poll released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center shows nearly half of those surveyed — or 47 percent — now rate energy exploration, drilling and building new power plants as the top priority, compared with 35 percent who believed that five months ago.
The Pew poll, conducted in late June, showed the number of people who consider energy conservation as more important declined by 10 percentage points since February from a clear majority to 45 percent. People are now about evenly split on which is more important.
The number of people who said they considered increasing energy supplies more important than protecting the environment increased from 54 percent in February to 60 percent and the number of people who favor oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge also increased.
The Department of Political Science, and Environmental Studies Program University of California, Santa Barbara published a paper (PDF) which appears to be a little outdated but their findings are still pertinent today.
I can't say their conclusions were earth shattering in their report, Support for Offshore Oil and Gas Drilling among the California Public.
They plotted gasoline prices from 1976 to 2001 on a graph and then plotted on the same graph, the results of Californian public opinion polls on whether to drill or not off the California coast from the same corresponding periods of time. The similarities between the two graphs is evident.
In their report they stated: "We can sum up the trend data by saying that we do not see a public that is strongly pro-environmental or anti-oil drilling. Instead, we see a public that responds to changes in the price of gasoline. When gasoline prices were low or falling, public support for oil development fell; when gasoline prices were rising, public support for more drilling rose. The public was rationally responding to real world events."
They also noted that when drilling approval went up (as gas prices went up) - approval from lower income public increased more dramatically than it did from those with higher incomes. This would seem quite logical since rising energy prices pose more hardship to those with lower incomes.
According to Newt Gingrich, "Over 1.2 million Americans have now signed American Solutions' 'Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less' petition calling on Congress to act immediately to lower gas and diesel prices and help achieve energy independence.
Over 1 million people have already watched Newt's video from last Friday in which he discusses three ways Congress could act to lower gas prices You can watch it on YouTube here.
Oil drilling in the desolate ANWR would be confined to a small 2,000 acre footprint on the massive 19.6 million acre reserve. That's just 0.01% of ANWR's total acreage. Oil exploration would create new jobs and decrease America's dependence on foreign oil without harming the environment. At present, renewable energy sources are woefully inadequate to meet America's energy needs. Solar and wind power, for example, supply a paltry 0.19 percent of America's total energy.1
At present, we most likely don't have enough refining capacity to handle any new increase in supply. We actually have slightly fewer refineries today than we did in the mid-1980s.
One thing is clear: We need to find a way to get our government to listen to the will of the people. We, as a nation, need to become energy independent.
No, this was not Pew's most recent poll. This was a poll from Sept. 2005.
Compare that to Pew's most recent poll as summarized in this Yahoo news article: High gasoline prices have dramatically changed Americans' views on energy and the environment with more people now viewing oil drilling and new power plants as a greater priority than energy conservation than they did five months ago, according to a new survey.
The poll released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center shows nearly half of those surveyed — or 47 percent — now rate energy exploration, drilling and building new power plants as the top priority, compared with 35 percent who believed that five months ago.
The Pew poll, conducted in late June, showed the number of people who consider energy conservation as more important declined by 10 percentage points since February from a clear majority to 45 percent. People are now about evenly split on which is more important.
The number of people who said they considered increasing energy supplies more important than protecting the environment increased from 54 percent in February to 60 percent and the number of people who favor oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge also increased.
The Department of Political Science, and Environmental Studies Program University of California, Santa Barbara published a paper (PDF) which appears to be a little outdated but their findings are still pertinent today.
I can't say their conclusions were earth shattering in their report, Support for Offshore Oil and Gas Drilling among the California Public.
They plotted gasoline prices from 1976 to 2001 on a graph and then plotted on the same graph, the results of Californian public opinion polls on whether to drill or not off the California coast from the same corresponding periods of time. The similarities between the two graphs is evident.
In their report they stated: "We can sum up the trend data by saying that we do not see a public that is strongly pro-environmental or anti-oil drilling. Instead, we see a public that responds to changes in the price of gasoline. When gasoline prices were low or falling, public support for oil development fell; when gasoline prices were rising, public support for more drilling rose. The public was rationally responding to real world events."
They also noted that when drilling approval went up (as gas prices went up) - approval from lower income public increased more dramatically than it did from those with higher incomes. This would seem quite logical since rising energy prices pose more hardship to those with lower incomes.
According to Newt Gingrich, "Over 1.2 million Americans have now signed American Solutions' 'Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less' petition calling on Congress to act immediately to lower gas and diesel prices and help achieve energy independence.
Over 1 million people have already watched Newt's video from last Friday in which he discusses three ways Congress could act to lower gas prices You can watch it on YouTube here.
Oil drilling in the desolate ANWR would be confined to a small 2,000 acre footprint on the massive 19.6 million acre reserve. That's just 0.01% of ANWR's total acreage. Oil exploration would create new jobs and decrease America's dependence on foreign oil without harming the environment. At present, renewable energy sources are woefully inadequate to meet America's energy needs. Solar and wind power, for example, supply a paltry 0.19 percent of America's total energy.1
At present, we most likely don't have enough refining capacity to handle any new increase in supply. We actually have slightly fewer refineries today than we did in the mid-1980s.
One thing is clear: We need to find a way to get our government to listen to the will of the people. We, as a nation, need to become energy independent.
posted by HeavyHanded at
4:32 PM
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