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Sunday, October 12, 2008

Journal Poll: Most in N.M. Back Drilling

By John Fleck
Copyright © 2008 Albuquerque Journal
Journal Staff Writer
          New Mexicans want expanded energy production from more aggressive offshore drilling, allowing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and building new nuclear power plants, according to a Journal Poll.
        Overall, New Mexicans favor expanded offshore oil and gas drilling by a 64 percent to 24 percent margin, with the rest undecided.
        While the support for all three options was widespread, there were differences between Democrats and Republicans, and across different regions of the state.
        Through the summer, as oil prices soared, energy dominated the national political debate. But the recent economic troubles have pushed the issue off the list of top political issues in recent polls, noted Journal pollster Brian Sanderoff.
        Offshore drilling has been an important campaign issue, with Republican presidential candidate John McCain pushing for it strongly, while Democrat Barack Obama offers more qualified support.
        Poll results in New Mexico reflect those partisan differences.
        Among Republicans, 90 percent say they favor "more aggressive offshore drilling for oil and gas," with only 4 percent opposed and the rest undecided.
        Democrats also favored drilling, but by a narrower margin: 49 percent in favor, 34 percent opposed and the rest undecided.
        New Mexicans also support drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, by 54 percent to 37 percent.
        Among Republicans, support for the arctic drilling was to 80 percent, with 15 percent opposed. Among the state's Democrats, 38 percent support drilling in ANWR and 49 percent oppose it.
        Residents of the state's northwest and east sides — the state's two oil- and gas-producing regions — showed the strongest support for drilling in Alaska and offshore, Sanderoff said.
        "In gas and oil country we see the highest level of support for more aggressive drilling," Sanderoff said.
        New Mexicans also support expansion of nuclear power for the generation of electricity in this country by a 63 percent to 25 percent margin, with 12 percent undecided.
        Again, support is stronger among Republicans, with 80 percent saying they support an expansion of nuclear power and 9 percent opposed. Democrats also said they favor nuclear power expansion, but by a 54 percent to 33 percent margin.
        The poll of 400 likely New Mexico voters was conducted Sept. 29-Oct. 2. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.