Most Americans support more US oil drilling-poll
ReutersNEW YORK (Reuters) - A push by PresidentBush and Republican presidential candidate SenatorJohn McCain to lift a ban on U.S. offshore oil drilling couldfind plenty of support from Americans weary of rising energycosts, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll.
Some 59.6 percent of Americans surveyed in the pollreleased Wednesday said they would favor government effortsto boost domestic drilling and refinery construction to coolrecord prices.
Roughly the same amount -- 59.3 percent -- said they wouldback efforts to reduce domestic demand in the world's biggestenergy consumer through tougher fuel-efficiency standards,while 54.2 percent of respondents said they supported increaseduse of biofuels like ethanol to cut gasoline use.
The poll results come as 2008 U.S. presidential candidatesoutline their programs to help ease the economic sting ofrecord fuel prices on consumers.
Bush on Wednesday called on the U.S. Congress to end adecades-old ban on offshore oil drilling -- a plan backed byMcCain but opposed by his Democratic rival, Senator BarackObama -- as well as ending restrictions on oil shale drillingand opening up more acreage in Alaska for development.
Analysts say the plan to increase domestic drilling willoffer no swift relief for consumers.
"We believe this (proposal) will have a limited impactgiven the long lag time to actual production and new supplycoming online," said Chris Jarvis, senior analyst for CaprockRisk Management in New Hampshire.
In addition to increasing production and conservation, 39percent of the 1,113 likely voters surveyed said that theywould support moves to pressure OPEC nations to increase outputto bring down prices. Some 37 percent said they would favorwithdrawing oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The Bush administration has called upon OPEC to increaseoutput several times this year as oil prices surged to recordpeaks near $140. But the cartel has insisted that the market iswell-supplied and blamed high prices on speculators.
Calls by some politicians to open the SPR to help bringdown prices have been rejected by the administration, which hassaid the reserve should be used to counter supply disruptions.
The poll was conducted June 12-14 and had a margin of errorof plus or minus 3 percentage points, meaning results couldvary that much either way. (Reporting by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Robinson; Editingby Christian Wiessner)