71 Pct of American Voters Favor Increased O&G Development, Poll Says

Seventy-one percent of American voters favor increased access to U.S. oil and natural gas resources, 90 percent believe more oil and natural gas development could lead to more U.S. jobs, and 87 percent believe it could lower energy costs for consumers, according to a new poll released Tuesday.

“Strong majorities of voters support more domestic energy development, regardless of party affiliation,” said API President and CEO Jack Gerard. “And they don’t like what they’re seeing in Washington where development has been slowed or stopped despite millions of Americans still out of work. Nearly two out of three voters believe the nation is moving in the wrong direction on energy.”

The telephone poll, conducted by Harris Interactive, among 1,016 registered voters also found that nearly two-thirds (65 percent) feel that an increase in taxes on oil and natural gas companies could hurt consumers, three out of four (75 percent) support building the Keystone XL pipeline, and more than seven in ten (73 percent) support a change in policy to allow more offshore drilling. More than nine in ten (92 percent) say energy security and producing at home more oil and natural gas is an important issue this election. Strong majorities of Republicans, Democrats and Independents believe increased access to domestic oil and natural gas could lead to more American jobs.

The United States is the world’s largest producer of natural gas and third largest producer of oil. It has very substantial reserves of both in part because of technological advances in offshore development and in the production of oil and natural gas from onshore shale formations.

API represents more than 500 oil and natural gas companies, leaders of a technology-driven industry that supplies most of America’s energy, supports 9.2 million U.S. jobs and 7.7 percent of the U.S. economy, delivers more than $86 million a day in revenue to our government, and, since 2000, has invested more than $2 trillion in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives.

[mappress]
LNG World News Staff, August 15, 2012