California Conservative

Liberal in the Land of Conservatives posted about a poll that supposedly shows a majority of people “isn’t buying the arguments” being made by President Bush and others pushing for opening the OCS and ANWR. here’s the press release accompanying the poll results:

To: NATIONAL EDITORS

Contact: Kathy Westra, The Wilderness Society, +1-202-429-2642, kathy_westra@tws.org; or Cindy Shogan, Alaska Wilderness League, +1-202-544-5205, cindy@alaskawild.org

Majority Says New Drilling Would Enrich Oil Companies Rather than Benefit Consumers, and 76 Percent Support New Technology Development Over Drilling

WASHINGTON, July 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The American public is not buying the arguments of President Bush and the oil industry that new drilling will lower gas prices, a new poll finds. Despite a well-funded campaign to convince lawmakers to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and the offshore waters of the Outer Continental Shelf to drilling, and to allow new oil shale projects in the Rocky Mountain West, a majority (54%) of Americans do not see more drilling as a solution to high gas prices. Instead, the public overwhelmingly believes (76% to 19%) that policymakers should focus on investing in new energy technologies including renewable fuels and more efficient vehicles rather than expanding exploration and drilling for more oil. These findings were reported in a national poll conducted over the past week by Belden Russonello and Stewart, and released today.

A significant majority of Americans (63%) said that the Presidents proposal to open up public lands to oil and gas drilling is more likely to enrich oil companies than to lower gas prices for American consumers. A substantial majority (66%) said that the small percentage of public lands still protected from oil drilling should remain off limits because they are valuable natural resources that cannot be replaced.

When asked the question, Do you think that allowing oil companies to drill in public lands and offshore areas that are currently off limits to drilling will result in lower gas prices for American consumers or not?, 54% of poll respondents said they did not believe more drilling would lower gas prices. Although Americans were initially divided on a general question of opening protected public lands and offshore areas to drilling, with a slight majority (53%) in favor, and 41% opposed, the poll found that support for drilling weakened significantly when those polled were presented with other energy policy options. When asked the question: Looking to the future, which one of the following do you think should be a more important priority for government: Investing in new energy technology including renewable fuels and more efficient automobiles, or expanding exploration and drilling for more oil?, more than three-quarters (76%) of respondents favored new technology and renewables, and only a small number (19%) favored expanded oil drilling.

The poll, conducted by Washington, D.C., research firm Belden Russonello & Stewart, was a nationally representative telephone survey of 821 adults between July 16 and 20, 2008. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3.5 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. A copy of the complete survey is here:

http://wilderness.org/Library/Documents/upload/BRS-Omnibus-Poll_07-22-08.pdf

SOURCE The Wilderness Society

Here’s the poll’s first question and the replies to it:

Q1. The U.S. has certain public lands and offshore areas that are protected from oil and gas drilling. Should Congress open the protected areas to oil and gas drilling or should Congress continue to protect these areas? Do you feel that way strongly or somewhat?
STRONGLY OPEN TO DRILLING- 34%
SOMEWHAT OPEN TO DRILLING- 19
SOMEWHAT CONTINUE TO PROTECT- 13
STRONGLY CONTINUE TO PROTECT- 28
DK/REF 7

If the blitz isn’t having any effect on people, then why are a majority of people in this poll either strongly or somewhat open to drilling?

Here’s the second question and the reply:

Q2. Looking to the future, which one of the following do you think should be a more important priority for government: Investing in new energy technology including renewable fuels and more efficient automobiles; or expanding exploration and drilling for more oil?
INVEST IN NEW ENERGY TECHNOLOGY- 76%
EXPAND EXPLORATION AND DRILLING- 19
DK/REF- 5

It isn’t surprising that people see renewables and more efficient automobiles as a priority for the future. That doesn’t have anything to do with what they want done now.

Let’s also notice that this poll was authorized by environmental groups. I’ve seen two polls by nationally reputable polling companies that say the overwhelming majority of Americans want drilling. One favored it by a 73-27 margin, the other by a 74-26 margin.

Next, let’s look at Jack Kelly’s column in the Washington Times:

In the six years between President Bush’s inauguration in 2001 and the Democrats’ assumption of control of Congress in 2007, the price of gasoline rose an average of 14 cents a year. Since the Democrats took over Congress, the price of gas has doubled, the inflation monster has reawakened, and the recession wolf is sniffing at our door.

I know. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc (after, therefore because of) was the first logical fallacy they taught back when logic was taught in school. It may merely be coincidence that things went to hell in a handbasket since the Democrats took over.

Or maybe not. Here’s another coincidence. On July 15, President Bush announced he was lifting the executive branch moratorium on offshore drilling. In the 24 hours that followed, crude oil futures plunged $9.26 (6.3 percent), the biggest oil price decline in 17 years.

“Traders took a look at a feisty and aggressive George Bush and started selling the market well before a new drop of oil has been lifted,” said financial analyst Larry Kudlow. “If Congress moves to seal the deal, oil prices will probably keep on falling. That’s the way traders work. They discount the future. Psychology and expectations can turn on a dime.”

I’ll trust Larry Kudlow’s predictions and Jack Kelly’s analysis alot more than I’ll trust polling authorized by The Wilderness Society or the Alaska Wilderness League. My only hope is that Democrats continue beliving this polling. If they do, they’ll be disappointed on the first Tuesday this November.

Technorati Tags: Polling, ANWR, OCS, Larry Kudlow, Jack Kelly, Environutters, Democrats, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 26th, 2008 at 11:04 pm and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Election 2008, Energy, Environment, Liberals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.