The poll was conducted days after Vice President Dick Cheney delivered a speech in which he said the Bush administration’s new energy policy will focus mostly on increased production of domestic oil, natural gas and nuclear power. “Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy,” Cheney said.
Cheney is leading a task force that will release a 100-page report on energy policy later this month. It is expected to conclude that the issue has been neglected, and point to a long list of energy emergencies across the United States. California, for instance, faces rolling summer electricity blackouts. In New York City, officials are scrambling to add small gas generators to handle peak demand. Natural gas prices have doubled in the past year. And the price of gas is skyrocketing, and could soon hit $3 a gallon.
In the NEWSWEEK poll, 51 percent say the priority for U.S. energy policy should be more energy conservation and regulation on energy use and prices. Forty-two percent say it should be expanding exploration, mining and drilling and the construction of more power plants.
The nation is split over President George W. Bush’s proposal to open up some protected Alaskan wilderness areas for oil exploration: 48 percent disapprove of the plan, but an almost equal 45 percent approve.
Almost half of those polled don’t think Bush is committed to protecting the environment; 39 percent say he is. Fifty percent say the fact that Bush and Cheney are both former oil-company executives makes them more likely to help the energy industry at the expense of consumers and the environment while 44 percent say their backgrounds makes them better suited to shaping energy policy.
The NEWSWEEK poll of 1,002 adults was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates on May 3 and May 4. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
