Natural Gas Preferred to Other Fossil Fuels, Says Survey, but Still Partisan Split

Natural gas is viewed more favorably than other fossil fuels around the world, although sentiment is largely divided along ideological lines, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.

The survey was conducted between October 2019 and March in 20 countries including the United States, Canada, Brazil and Russia, along with several countries across Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

A median of 69% of respondents favored expanding use of natural gas, said survey authors Brian Kennedy, Alison Spencer and Cary Funk.

“Public support for expanding use of natural gas stands in contrast to the much smaller shares of adults who express support for expanding oil (median of 39%) and coal (median of 24%),” they said.

Support for expanding the use of gas ranged from a high...