Louisiana Voters Strongly Support Offshore Drilling, Deepwater Drilling

Rasmussen Reports
Jun. 28, 2010

Even as oil washes up on their shores from the still-spewing oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, 79% of Louisiana voters believe offshore oil drilling should be allowed, and nearly as many support deepwater drilling.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Louisiana finds that just 15% do not believe offshore oil drilling should be allowed.

These findings are basically unchanged from early April prior to the eruption of the oil leak.

Nationally, 60% of voters support offshore oil drilling, while 22% are opposed. Eighteen percent (18%) remain undecided. Seventy-two percent (72%) favored offshore drilling prior to the oil leak.

As for the relatively limited drilling for oil in deepwater locations like the rig that exploded in April causing the current environmental disaster, 72% of Louisiana voters think it should be allowed. Nineteen percent (19%) oppose deepwater drilling.

Support for offshore drilling in a state that is heavily dependent on the oil industry is perhaps not surprising given that just 11% of Louisiana voters characterized the economy as good or excellent in April, while 42% rated it as poor. Voters were evenly divided at the time whether the economy was getting better or worse.

The survey of 500 Likely Voters in Louisiana was conducted on June 24, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Still, 77% of voters in the state agree that the Gulf oil leak will have a devastating or major long-term impact on the environment, roughly comparable to sentiments nationally late last month. Eighteen percent (18%) in Louisiana believe the leak's impact will be modest. Only four percent (4%) say the long-term impact of the leak will be either minor or that there will be no lasting impact.

Seventy-four percent (74%) say the companies who were drilling for oil on the accident site -- BP and Transocean -- should pay for the cleanup. Just three percent (3%) say the government should be responsible for the cleanup costs, and another 21% say the companies and the government should cover the costs jointly.

Men are much more supportive than women of both regular and deepwater offshore drilling. Voters under 30 are the least supportive of either type of drilling.

Offshore drilling is supported by more than 80% of those who earn more than $40,000 per year. Similar support for deepwater drilling is found among those who earn $75,000 or more per year.

Republicans and voters not affiliated with either party favor both types of drilling more than Democrats, but sizable majorities of those in the president's party still support offshore and deepwater drilling.

Forty-four percent (44%) of voters nationwide believe there is a conflict between economic growth and environmental protection, but 34% disagree. Another 22% are not sure.

In Texas, another state with a lengthy stretch of Gulf shoreline, 70% of voters say offshore oil drilling should be allowed.

In Florida, support for offshore drilling has fallen to 48%, but only 33% of the state's voters favor a constitutional amendment that would prohibit drilling off the Florida coast.

Voters nationally are more critical than ever of President Obama's handling of the oil spill and now are nearly as critical of the president as they are of BP and Transocean.

But 69% of Americans agree with the president that the oil companies involved with the Gulf leak should be required to pay back everyone who lost income because of it.

Besides the obvious environmental concerns about the oil leak, most Americans now worry about how it will impact the economy.