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Pew Survey: More Americans Favor Fracking, Offshore Drilling
More Americans continue to view alternative energy development as a higher priority than increased production of natural gas, oil and coal, but the gap has narrowed “considerably” over the past year, according to a poll released on Monday by the Pew Research Center.
In addition, support for more offshore drilling in U.S. waters, which plunged after the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, has recovered to pre-Macondo well blowout levels, the poll found. Nearly two-thirds (65%) favor allowing more offshore drilling, which is up from 57% a year ago and 44% in June 2010, two months after the BP plc spill.
The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press was conducted March 7-11 among 1,503 adults.
More than half (52%) of those surveyed said the “more important priority” to address the nation’s energy supply was to develop alternative energy resources, while 39% said expanding exploration and production (E&P) was a bigger priority.
“A year ago, the public viewed the development of alternative energy sources as the more important priority by a much wider margin (63% to 29%),” the authors noted. “Since then, support for expanding production of oil and other traditional sources has increased among most demographic and political groups and the shift among Republicans has been particularly pronounced.”
In March 2011 Republicans surveyed were evenly divided on how to address the domestic energy supply: 47% said the more important priority was to develop alternative resources while 44% said it was to expand E&P).
“In the current survey, just a third of Republicans (33%) view development of alternatives as more important, while 59% say the more important priority is to expand exploration and production of oil and other traditional energy sources.”
Previous Pew Research Center surveys have found broad public support for various energy policies, including better fuel efficiency for vehicles, federal funding for energy research and mass transit spending. However, even though support for some of these policies has been steady or has fallen slightly in recent years, offshore drilling in U.S. waters has increased, the authors noted.
“Currently, more than twice as many favor than oppose increased offshore drilling (65% versus 31%). In June 2010 only 44% favored more offshore drilling, while 52% were opposed. The balance of opinion today is almost identical to what it was in February 2010, two months before the Gulf oil disaster (63% favor, 31% oppose).”
Americans are “far more divided” about whether the federal government should provide tax incentives to energy companies for exploration — 46% are in favor, while one-half (50%) are opposed. “Opinion about tax cuts for energy companies is about where it was in 2008.”
The survey also found “limited awareness” of hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Only about one-quarter (26%) of those surveyed had heard about fracking while 37% said they had heard “a little” and another 37% said they’d heard “nothing at all.”
Of those surveyed who had said they had “heard” of fracking, there was “more support than opposition,” according to the survey.
“About half (52%) favor fracking, while 35% are opposed to the process. As with opinions about many other energy policies there is a wide partisan gap in views of fracking: 73% of Republicans who have heard of fracking favor it, compared with 54% of independents and just 33% of Democrats.”
The survey found “large partisan differences” for various energy policies. Most (89%) of Republicans favor more offshore drilling while only half of Democrats surveyed agree. Most of the independents queried (64%) supported increased U.S. offshore drilling.
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