In big shift, Californians oppose
offshore oil drilling



SAN FRANCISCO
July 28, 2010 9:01pm

Three months after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew up, killing eleven workers and releasing uncountable millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, there’s been seismic shift in opinion among Californians about offshore oil drilling.

A solid majority of the state's residents now oppose more offshore drilling (59 percent oppose, 36 percent favor) — a 16-point increase in opposition from last year, when 43 percent opposed and 51 percent favored it, according to a survey released Wednesday evening by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.

The PPIC survey was conducted with funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

In contrast to the shift in opinion on drilling, Californians' views on another contentious environmental policy issue have held steady since last year.

Two-thirds (67 percent today, 66 percent in 2009) favor the state law (AB 32) that requires California to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.


AB 32 is the focus of renewed debate because Proposition 23 on the November ballot would suspend the law until unemployment drops to 5.5 percent or below for a minimum of one year. That could be a while – if ever. California’s unemployment rate has been below 5 percent only twice since 1976 – in 2000 and in 2006, just before the current economic collapse.

Because the ballot language had not been finalized when the PPIC survey was in the field, the organization decided to pose a more general question about timing: Should the government take action to reduce emissions right away or wait until the state economy and job situation improve?

A slim majority (53 percent) say California should act right away, while 42 percent say the state should wait.
 


"Two crises — a major oil spill and a major recession — have affected Californians' views on environmental policy in very different ways," says Mark Baldassare, PPIC president and CEO. "After consistently opposing more offshore oil drilling, residents began to waver as gas prices increased. But events in the gulf appear to have renewed opposition to more drilling here. In contrast, the lingering effect of the recession and a continuing state budget crisis haven't changed Californians' overall view of AB 32. While support has declined somewhat since 2007, a solid majority still favors the law."

Methodology

The PPIC survey was done with funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Findings are based on a telephone survey of 2,502 California adult residents reached by landline and cell phones throughout the state. Interviews took place from July 6–20, and were conducted in English, Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese), Vietnamese, and Korean. The sampling error is ±2 percent for all adults, ±2.2 percent for the 1,971 registered voters, and ±2.7 percent for the 1,321 likely voters.