Monday, July 28, 2014

API survey finds gap between voters, federal officials on development

A substantial gap exists between registered voters’ support for more US oil and gas development on federal lands, and what they think federal officials actually are doing about it, according to a recent survey commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute. Nielsen’s random telephone survey of 1,012 largely suburban registered voters July 11-13 found 77% support more production of US oil and gas, including 92% of Republicans, 80% of Independents, and 66% of Democrats, API said on July 23. “But only 28% said the federal government does enough to encourage domestic oil and gas development,” API Upstream Group Director Erik Milito noted. “And 68%—including majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents—say they would be more likely to vote for candidates who support offshore drilling,” he told reporters. “Clearly, voters do not think energy should be a partisan issue.” The survey’s results came days after the US Bureau of Offshore Energy Management (BOEM) moved a step closer to authorizing geological and geophysical surveys of the South and Mid-Atlantic US Outer Continental Shelf (OGJ Online, July 18, 2014). “These surveys will give our industry and the government a clearer picture of the oil and gas resources hidden beneath the Atlantic seafloor, although there is a lack of scientific support for some of the constraints the government might place on survey operations,” Milito said...more

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