More Disapprove of BP Than President Obama

With the BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico seemingly capped, Americans are split down the middle over whether the federal government should maintain a moratorium on most offshore oil drilling in the Gulf, or lift it and allow drilling to resume before November, according to the latest Gallup Poll on the subject.

Americans as a whole are also divided over whether BP should be allowed to drill for oil in the same area again in the future, and the gender and partisan differences on this question are similar to those seen for lifting the Gulf oil drilling moratorium.

This survey makes clear, however, that far more people blame the British Petroleum corporation than the president of the United States or the government for the massive mess in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP’s Ratings Improved, but Still Negative

Despite Americans’ divergent views about future oil drilling in the Gulf, they share a common reaction to BP’s handling of the 2010 oil spill — one that is overwhelmingly negative. While more Americans approve of BP’s handling of the situation than did so in June, 64 percent still disapprove.

Over the same two-month period, there has been no change in Americans’ reactions to the way President Barack Obama has handled the situation. Close to half disapprove, 48 percent, while slightly fewer, 44 percent, approve.

In early August, just as BP was stopping the oil spill with a “static kill” procedure and successfully sealing the well with cement, the Obama administration issued reports (using BP data) saying that most of the leaked oil in the Gulf has been captured, dispersed, or evaporated. This upbeat assessment has recently been challenged, however, by teams of independent scientists.

Americans’ own views of the damage are more negative than upbeat. Forty-four percent say the extent of damage caused by the oil spill is worse than they thought it would be, twice the number who say it is not as bad as they expected.

Survey Methods

Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Aug. 14-15, on the Gallup Daily tracking survey, with a random sample of 1,074 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, selected using random-digit-dial sampling. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Tags: Americans Divided About Future Gulf Drilling, BP Oil Spill, President Obama

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 at 10:01 am and is filed under BP Oil Spill, Environment News, Public Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.