Public Favors Priority on Energy Production Over Environment

For the first time since Gallup began asking the question in 2001, more Americans say that the United States should put priority on developing supplies of oil, gas and coal than on protecting the environment.

This is the latest in a series of Gallup polls that have found public concerns lessening about the environment. A survey conducted in early March said that those who believe the seriousness of global warming had been exaggerated jumped from 30 percent in 2006 to 48 percent.

Gallup also said that Americans were less worried than they were a year earlier about a variety of environmental issues ranging from pollution of drinking water to air pollution.

In its latest report, based on a March 4-7 survey, Gallup said 50 percent of Americans put the priority on energy production while 43 percent were more concerned about environmental protection. In 2007, 58 percent thought environmental protection was more important and 34 percent came down on the side of energy production. In 2001, when Gallup first asked the question, the margin in favor of environment over energy was 52 percent to 36 percent.

However, a majority of Americans -- 52 percent to 36 percent -- still believe that the best solution to energy problems is more conservation rather than emphasizing more production.

The change in attitudes may provide some context for President Obama's decision last week to allow offshore drilling along much of the Atlantic coastline and parts of the Gulf of Mexico and waters off of Alaska.

Gallup said one explanation for the trend may be the tendency of Americans to downgrade the importance of environmental protection during economic hard times. Gallup found in polling during the same March period that 53 percent put the priority on economic growth over the environment, which, along with a similar result in 2008, was only the second time in two decades that this view prevailed.

Follow Poll Watch on Twitter