Why 51 percent of Americans think we should drill offshore for oil

Whether or not to drill for oil in environmentally sensitive areas on land and offshore has become a significant issue in this year’s national elections. Some people are campaigning heavily in favor of expanded drilling, arguing that it would lower the price of gasoline. The polls indicate that this effort has been successful. For example, 69 percent of respondents favored such expanded drilling, and 51 percent said they believed federal laws prohibiting were a major cause of the recent increase in gasoline prices.

However, there is no empirical basis for believing that drilling in environmentally sensitive offshore zones would significantly affect gas prices. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Agency (EIA) projects that such drilling would add some 200,000 barrels of oil per day at peak production in about 20 years. This is about 0.2 percent of world production, and the EIA describes this as too small to have any significant effect on oil prices.

So how did 51 percent of Americans come to believe the opposite? This report found that the major media’s coverage of this issue, or lack thereof, played a significant role in shaping public opinion. By repeatedly reporting the false claims of drilling proponents, while giving little or no attention to the available facts, the news media helped to convince the public of something that is not true.

For a full accounting of how this study was done, you can read the entire article. But the main points are as follows:

1. This study looked at the 8 most popular news stations/programs based on viewership. The total viewership of these combines is over 40 million people, although some of these people certainly overlap channels/programs.

1. The study then counted how many broadcasts/reports on each of these channels mentioned the proposed drilling in a 2 month span. Total: 267

1. The study then counted how many of those cited, not opinions about the fact that drilling wouldn’t help, but the aforementioned Energy Information Agency’s data factually asserting that it wouldn’t have an effect. Total: 1

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark …