Editor's note: This article appeared in the June 14, 2010, edition of Quirk's e-newsletter.
Americans' concern regarding the the BP Deepwater Horizon oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is growing along with the day count. The spill has gone unresolved for the past 56 days, though not for lack of trying. From top kill to filling the hole with tires and golf balls, the efforts from deep-sea experts and leaders from BP and the federal government have been unsuccessful, and their failure has not gone unnoticed by the American public. According to an American Pulse survey from BIG Research, Columbus, Ohio, only 12.7 percent of Americans believe BP knows what it's going to do to fix the problem. Nearly 70 percent say they don't think BP knows what it's doing.
While the U.S. attorney general has launched a criminal probe into the worst oil spill in U.S. history, 61.8 percent say the Obama administration hasn't done enough.
Additionally, a June 7, 2010, poll from Utica, N.Y., research company Zogby Interactive indicated 66 percent of U.S. adults say the oil spill is "a disaster that will cause long-term environmental and economic damage," with that number increasing as the spill persists. Twenty percent believe it is "a problem that will cause some short-term environmental and economic damage on the Gulf Coast," and 10 percent believe "the potential damage caused by the spill is being exaggerated."
Democrats were more likely than Republicans to respond that the oil spill represents "a disaster that will cause long-term environmental and economic damage" (85 percent vs. 45 percent). Republicans are also more than four times as likely to agree that offshore drilling is a "safe, reliable and cost-efficient method of producing oil" (88 percent vs. 20 percent).