A Trafalgar Group poll found that over three-quarters of Americans believe President Joe Biden should prioritize increasing energy production in the U.S. as war rages on in Ukraine.
The poll, released Wednesday, found that 77.3% of the overall respondents believe domestic oil production should be the president’s priority during the war in Ukraine, while 9.3% said it should not be a priority. Along partisan lines, 88.6% of Republicans, 67% of Democrats, and 77.6% of independents said they supported the idea of increasing energy production.
The poll surveyed 1,073 adults between March 7-11 with a 2.99% margin-of-error.
Our new @trafalgar_group/@COSProject poll (3/7-11) shows more than 3/4 of Americans believe #Biden should make domestic energy production a priority:
77.3% Yes
9.3% No
13.5% Not sureBipartisan agreement:
67% #Dems
88.6% #GOP
77.6% #IndsSee Report: https://t.co/k4PC2tV6qS pic.twitter.com/UCv0sCRFSn
— The Trafalgar Group (@trafalgar_group) March 16, 2022
The Biden administration has faced immense bipartisan pressure to increase domestic oil production after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February. The U.S. imported over 670,000 oil barrels per day from Russia in 2021, who is the third largest oil producer in the world. (RELATED: ‘Same Old D.C. B.S.’: Energy Secretary Denies Reopening Keystone Pipeline Would Lower Oil And Gas Prices)
The president issued a ban on all imports of Russian oil on March 8 to target the “main artery of Russia’s economy.” The invasion, plus economic consequences on Russia’s economy, has led to crude oil exceeding $100 per barrel and gas prices rising above $4 per gallon.
To solve the rising prices, the administration has pushed for steering away from oil production and promoting ways to transition to clean energy, such as buying electric vehicles. Many lawmakers, however, pushed back on this agenda by calling for the administration to reverse the cancellation of the Keystone XL Pipeline and ban on new federal oil leases.
Biden offered to remove oil trading sanctions imposed on Venezuela to increase U.S. supply, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The administration had previously considered removing sanctions on Venezuela’s energy sector in a rare face-to-face meeting with top Venezuelan officials on March 7.
CBS senior White House correspondent Ed O’Keefe read reactions from Americans on rising gas prices, who said, “I just never imagined the cost of gas to be so high,” and, “it’s a huge stressor for my financial situation,” to White House press secretary Jen Psaki at a March 7 press briefing.
