Civitas Poll: NC Voters Say, ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’

May 31, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jim Tynen (919) 834-2099
James.Tynen@NCCivitas.org

Raleigh, N.C. – The newest Civitas Poll reveals widespread support for developing North Carolina’s oil and natural gas resources.

Over two-thirds (68 percent) of likely voters support some type of drilling with nearly half (48 percent) of them saying the state should drill both offshore and on land for oil and natural gas. Another 10 percent favor drilling only on land, with the same amount favoring offshore drilling alone. Only 23 percent of those polled were opposed to both kinds of drilling.

“The voters  of North Carolina understand the benefits of using the natural resources found right here,” Civitas President Francis De Luca said. “Energy exploration means good jobs now and plentiful energy in the future. The General Assembly should listen to the voters and ignore propaganda from a clique of special interests trying to prohibit the use of natural resources found right here.”

The Civitas Poll is the only regular live-caller poll of critical issues facing North Carolina.  For more information on Civitas polling, see http://www.nccivitas.org/category/poll/.

Full text of question:

Currently in North Carolina there is a total ban on drilling for Natural Gas and Oil. The legislature is considering lifting that ban. Would you support lifting the ban to allow:

10%     Offshore drilling for oil and natural gas
10%     Drilling for Natural Gas on land
48%     Both
23%     Neither
9%       Don’t Know

For the full results and crosstabs, click here.

This poll of 600 registered 2012 general election voters in North Carolina was conducted May 19-20, 2012 by National Research, Inc. of Holmdel, NJ.  All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of registered 2012 general election voters in North Carolina.  For purposes of this study, voters interviewed had to have voted in at least one of the past three general elections (2006, 2008, 2010) or be newly registered to vote since November 2, 2010.

The confidence interval associated with a sample of this size is such that: 95 percent of the time, results from 600 interviews (registered voters) will be within +-4% of the “True Values.” True Values refer to the results obtained if it were possible to interview every person in North Carolina who had voted in at least one of the past three general elections or is newly registered since November 2, 2010.

More information on the Civitas Institute is available at www.nccivitas.org, or contact Jim Tynen at (919) 834-2099.