High gas prices drive support for drilling

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/aug/18/high-gas-prices-drive-support-for-drilling/

 

Coloradans, like many Americans, like to heap scorn on oil and gas companies. Even so, they appear to back more drilling in the state, believing it will cut gas prices and dependence on foreign oil.

 

 

Those are the conflicting findings of a Rocky Mountain News/ CBS 4 News poll of 500 registered voters conducted Aug. 11-13, reflecting the two minds voters bring to the questions, pollsters said.

 

On one hand, the 66 percent of Coloradans who have unfavorable impressions of oil and gas companies are angry about high gas prices and the record profits enjoyed by energy companies, said pollster Lori Weigel of Public Opinion Strategies, which conducted the poll.

 

On the other, 57 percent of respondents were concerned there will be too little oil and natural gas development in Colorado.

 

“People want lower gas prices,” said pollster Craig Hughes, director of research of RBI Strategies and Research, who consulted on the survey. “They think the easiest way to do that is to increase drilling.”

 

Weigel’s firm generally polls for Republican candidates, while Hughes’ generally works with Democratic candidates.

 

The survey comes at a time when energy companies have assumed a high profile in Colorado amid the state’s natural gas boom, which has seen a tripling of state permits to drill for fossil fuels - to beyond 6,000 a year - since 2003.

 

The industry is also at the center of two major public policy debates in the state:

 

* The state agency charged with regulating oil and gas development is considering a major overhaul of environmental rules that govern how, when and where wells are drilled. Deliberations on the proposed rules begin today before the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

 

* And voters in November will consider a ballot initiative, supported by Gov. Bill Ritter, that would eliminate a property tax credit for the industry, generating some $300 million a year to be used for college scholarships, as well as wildlife, renewable energy and infrastructure projects.

 

Weigel cautioned that while 57 percent of respondents are concerned about too little drilling, the number needs “a big asterisk” because there is “massive distinction” by region, she said.

 

On the Western Slope, for example, where drilling activities have accelerated most visibly, people are more evenly divided.

 

“People who are at ground zero of energy development are much more divided on that specific issue,” Weigel said.

 

Weigel said the poll also found that people in the metro area, and in other areas where there’s little obvious presence of energy drilling, “have no concept of the oil and gas development that’s taking place” around towns such as Rifle and Durango.

 

Meg Collins of the Colorado Oil & Gas Association, a trade group, said the high unfavorable ratings in the poll show the industry needs to do “a better job of educating people in the states we do business, so they understand the contributions the industry makes and have a more balanced picture of the industry.”

 

She believes the stronger backing for more drilling is tied to the public’s concerns about an over-reliance on foreign energy sources, often from countries unfriendly to the United States. “We put the nation at risk,” she said.

 

But Duke Cox, an activist with the Western Colorado Congress and a home builder, said the poll results show the oil and gas industry has succeeded in “misleading the public” into believing that more drilling in Colorado will lower costs.

 

“The price of oil is based on a worldwide market. It has nothing to do with how much we drill Colorado,” said Cox, accurately noting that Colorado is a far greater source of natural gas than oil.

 

As for natural gas, industry critics note that new pipelines running outside the state and opening Colorado’s supply to new markets have led to major price increases - a point the industry concedes.

 

Natural gas prices have spiraled up, environmentalists point out, even though drilling in Colorado has increased three-fold in five years.