Anne Barth In the News

Oil drilling booms as an issue in several big campaigns
by Jake Stump
Daily Mail Capitol Reporter

WASHINGTON -- To drill or not to drill is the new burning question on Capitol Hill.

Recent public opinion polls show more Americans favoring energy exploration than ever before, even in environmentally sensitive spots like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

Half of the people surveyed by the Pew Research Center now support drilling in ANWR, up from 42 percent in February.

Another recent poll, conducted by the Los Angeles Times, found 57 percent of those surveyed would support increased domestic drilling as long as it posed no harm to the environment.

Congressional Quarterly reports that much of the increase in support for energy exploration is attributable to young people, liberals, independents, women and college-educated voters - groups that lean Democrat.

This shift in attitudes, as documented by the opinion polls, could be enough to even sway Democratic candidates who traditionally oppose expanded drilling.

"I've been following national polls on energy as the price of gas has skyrocketed," said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. "Here's the long and short of it: People are desperate for solutions, and so they are grabbing onto a wide range of possibilities, including some they have rejected or doubted in the past from off-shore exploration to ANWR to nuclear power to conservation to alternative energy sources.

"Voters seem to be saying, 'Give us some relief. Try everything if you have to.'"

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