Shut Up and Drill!

Gallup has released a poll on gas prices that shows the American public is pretty much all over the place on the issue.

On one hand, there is a healthy majority in favor of drilling in the US for more oil even in places where drilling is currently prohibited (which, by the way, is pretty much everywhere). There’s also a solid majority in favor of price controls. On the downward tick are the percentage of Americans blaming oil companies, the Iraq War, and refinery problems.

Americans also solidly oppose rationing, bringing back the 55 MPH speed limit, and suspending the federal gas tax over the summer.

Brian Faughnan and Dave in Texas both have interesting takes on this poll that bear consideration.

Gallup comes to its own interesting conclusion that suggests that it isn’t paying much attention to its own poll.

Last week, the Congress called oil company executives to testify on Capitol Hill and then berated them about surging gas prices and their companies’ record profits. While such actions might have a positive “jawboning” effect at best, they no doubt reflect the lawmakers’ sense of Americans’ growing frustration over increasing gas prices at the pump.

Ironically, the intensity with which Americans see oil companies as “gas price villains” may be fading a little, according to opinions respondents volunteered in a new Gallup Poll, conducted May 19-21. Over the past year, the percentage of Americans blaming the oil companies for skyrocketing gas prices fell from 34% to 20%

Since when is 14 points in a year “slight”? According to their own poll, Americans aren’t willing to take out their frustrations on oil companies. Gallup is stretching their conclusion more than a little to say that the infantile behavior of Congressional Democrats last week reflects any significant opinion held by the American people. It’s far more likely that Dems were setting up oil companies as the villains so they could play Jimmy Carter and seize the money they made for their stockholders fair and square. Thankfully, their attempt to steal our money was rebuffed by wiser heads.

This is a great opportunity for conservatives to start driving some real wedges between the American public and the left. The simple fact is that we can relieve the pressure we’re feeling on gas prices by drilling for oil in our own country. We can explore and use the oil shale that is plentiful in the west. We can get the pockets of natural gas that we alraedy know are there but Congress won’t let us get.

And we should be doing all that right now. There is no good excuse not to. Public opinion is on the side of more drilling. The oil is there and it alraedy belongs to us. If we start right now we can see some benefits in the relatively near future but the longer we wait, the worse a crunch we’re going to feel.

So drill. Now.

Tags: Energy Policy, Opinion Polls