The release of the second Energy IQ survey, conducted for American Petroleum Institute (API) by Harris Interactive®, comes after a series of national polls found broad public support for increased access to U.S. oil and natural gas resources. In comparing the results to last year’s survey, Harris Interactive found that respondents showed increased knowledge on key issues such as the competitive advantage foreign government-owned oil companies have over U.S. companies and the restrictions that current policies place on the development of America’s own resources.
Among the survey’s key findings:
While a majority of those surveyed understand the U.S. will need more energy in future decades, they underestimate the vital role that fossil fuels will play in meeting that demand while overestimating the impact of renewable sources.
- When asked how much more energy the U.S. will need in the next 20 years, 53 percent of respondents answered correctly that we will need between 16 and 20 percent more energy.
- While the International Energy Agency projects that more than 80 percent of global energy demand in 2030 will be met by fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal, only 12 percent of respondents chose this answer. The majority believed it would be 60 percent or less.
- While the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that 55 percent of U.S. energy demand will be met by oil and natural gas in 2030, only 16 percent of respondents chose this answer. The majority thought it was less than 45 percent.
- On the other hand, while the EIA projects that less than 10 percent of U.S. energy use will be supplied by renewable sources in 2030, only one in 10 respondents chose this answer. One in three respondents thought renewable sources would account for more than 20 percent of all energy – more than double government projections.
The majority of people are not aware that current policies restrict access to 85 percent of U.S. offshore areas in the lower 48 states, and they underestimate the amount of oil and natural gas produced in North America.
- At a time when national surveys find broad public support for increased offshore drilling, only 17 percent of respondents understand just how restrictive current U.S. policies are. Still, this is up 6 percent from last year’s survey.
- Only 8 percent of respondents knew that more than 45 percent of the oil and natural gas the U.S. consumed in 2007 was produced in North America; the majority thought it was less than 30 percent.