Americans at “tipping point” about energy: poll

By Lisa Lambert

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Americans are nearly as worried
about their country’s dependence on foreign energy sources as
they are about the war in Iraq, a poll released by the magazine
Foreign Affairs showed on Thursday.

Almost half of the 1,000 Americans surveyed for the Public
Agenda Confidence in U.S. Foreign Policy Index gave U.S.
policymakers a failing grade in weaning the country from
foreign oil.

Nearly 90 percent said the lack of energy independence
jeopardizes national security.

Public Agenda, a nonpartisan group, conducted the poll in
early January with funding from the Ford Foundation. It said
that Americans are at a “tipping point” on energy, akin to
their state of mind about the war.

Daniel Yankelovich, chairman of Public Agenda, said the
public reaches a “tipping point” when it is gravely worried
about an issue and believes the government has the ability to
change matters. When the index was first published in August
2005, only the Iraq war triggered a similar response, he said.

“This time we find that a second issue has reached a
tipping point, which is energy independence, and you have a
very strong increase in the number of Americans who are
intensely worried about the problem,” Yankelovich said in a
conference call.

“Now with this issue having reached the tipping point in
the public I think that that means the political complexion of
that issue is about to change considerably,” he added.

In the latest survey, 85 percent of respondents said the
U.S. government could do something about energy dependence if
it tried. The share of those who worried foreign conflicts will
drive up oil prices or cut off supplies rose to 55 percent from
42 percent in the August poll.

Since the August index was published, the U.S. energy
chessboard has been rearranged by a broad energy reform law
going into effect, a two-hurricane punch that shut in domestic
oil production, sudden spikes in oil prices spurred by
geopolitics, and record oil company profits.

While energy independence is certainly on citizens’ minds,
the index found that the war in Iraq remains their leading
international concern.

Their least pressing international issue was promoting
democracy abroad, with only one out of five participants saying
they considered the activity “very important.”