Polls, Damn Polls and Offshore Drilling

[BridgeTheGap]

Opinion polls are fueling politicians and candidates to push for more U.S. offshore oil drilling, with the media looking on intently.

Since the issue became a political focal point in May and June, polling has been relentless: Zogby. Rasmussen. Field. Gallup. Quinnipiac. CNN. Bloomberg. The list goes on. All point to an increasing public desire to lift a moratorium on more domestic drilling.

It's a rough reality check for the climate change movement: the American public increasingly seems willing to walk - or drive - away from climate change concerns, as high gas prices trump principle.

But as with all polls, the framing is paramount and the media's interpretation crucial.

Keith Johnson, a longtime energy reporter who now writes the "Environmental Capital" blog for The Wall Street Journal, said survey questions should be parsed carefully.

"In polls in which the question is something like, 'Do you prefer more drilling or more investment in alternative energy?,' alternative energy usually comes out ahead," Johnson told The Yale Forum in an e-mail interview. A new Quinnipiac poll bolsters that case.

http://www.yaleclimatemediaforum.org/features/0808_offshore_drilling.htm