Quote Originally Posted by Psycho4Bud
A new Rasmussen Reports telephone surveyâ??conducted before McCain announced his intentions on the issue--finds that 67% of voters believe that drilling should be allowed off the coasts of California, Florida and other states. Only 18% disagree and 15% are undecided. Conservative and moderate voters strongly support this approach, while liberals are more evenly divided (46% of liberals favor drilling, 37% oppose).

Sixty-four percent (64%) of voters believe it is at least somewhat likely that gas prices will go down if offshore oil drilling is allowed, although 27% donâ??t believe it. Seventy-eight percent (78%) of conservatives say offshore drilling is at least somewhat likely to drive prices down. That view is shared by 57% of moderates and 50% of liberal voters.
Rasmussen Reportsâ?¢: The most comprehensive public opinion coverage ever provided for a presidential election.

Seems that this issue has strong support from both sides of the aisle....this is one fight the enviromentalists will lose with the price of gas and fuel oil climbing every day.

Have a good one!:s4:
One thing about this is that even if a vast majority of the country were to favor offshore drilling, people in the states affected are far more likely to be against it and in a position to prevent it. I don't think the Congress willl vote for what Bush and McCain are calling for. But even if they do, I don't think you will see any new drilling off of California, and Florida is pretty iffy too.

Another point about this information is that even if a person believes new drilling will bring down the cost of gas, they still might not personally be for it. I do not favor offshore drilling, even if it does bring down the price of gas. The full cost of extracting oil or coal is not reflected in the price we pay for the commodity. Usually that extra cost is in the form of environmental degradation as the point of extraction. So the economics may be that we all pay less for gas if we have offshore drilling, but the people along the coast pay for it in the form of polution, oil spills, erosion, etc. A lot of the people who actually live on these coasts don't want to pay that price so that everyone else can enjoy marginally cheaper gas.