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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (74523)	5/12/2010 2:41:55 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 149317

Poll: Support for expanded offshore drilling drops K by Jed Lewison Wed May 12, 2010 at 08:56:03 AM PDT A new CBS News poll conducted May 6-9 with a margin of error of three points finds a sharp in public support for increased offshore oil drilling -- but a plurality of those surveyed still support more drilling. According to the poll, 46% favored increased offshore drilling and 41% opposed it. This represents a sharp drop from just two years ago -- in August, 2008 a CBS poll showed 62% favored an expansion of drilling compared with 28% who opposed it. Republicans were more likely to support drilling (63% supported increased offshore oil drilling) than Democrats (34%) while independents mirrored the overall results (45%). 85% of survey respondents said they were paying a lot (56%) or some (29%) attention to the BP Deepwater oil spill. Although a plurality still supports more offshore drilling, the rapid change in these numbers suggest a sizable chunk of the public has an open mind with respect to the evaluating the costs and benefits of offshore oil drilling. My view is that what we're seeing now is that BP's oil spill has convinced roughly one in five Americans that the cost of extracting oil from offshore drilling -- in terms of environmental and economic devastation -- is much higher than they had previously believed. Nonetheless, a plurality continues to support more offshore drilling, likely because they overestimate the benefits of doing so. Therefore, it's important to underscore that even in the best case scenario, an expansion of offshore drilling will hardly make a dent in satisfying our energy needs. Still, we can't get bogged down in a debate over whether or not to expand offshore drilling. That's a side issue. The real question is whether or not we should break our dependence on oil by developing clean alternative sources of energy. Figuring out how to cheaply and safely produce energy is one of the central challenges -- and opportunities -- of the 21st century. Do we want to be leaders or followers?