House Passes Bill on Offshore Drilling

A bill passed by the House last night would both expand offshore oil drilling and promote alternative energy, although whether it will actually become law seems uncertain given the upcoming congressional recess and the bitter partisanship around this issue. Multiple surveys have shown public support for more drilling (as in this June Pew survey that showed support for expanded exploration rising by 12 points in just four months).

But Public Agenda's focus group research, Putting the Pieces Together, also shows that there's a major disconnect between leaders and the public on energy. They define the problem differently and think about solutions differently.

For example, the public tends to think in terms of becoming independent of foreign oil, but most experts we interviewed don't think it's possible to become totally independent of foreign energy. They'd prefer to define the issue as achieving "energy security" from stable sources the U.S. can trust.

And there's a big question of trust here. We found many citizens had a “strongly felt perception that ‘movers and shakers’ are either actively making matters worse or are simply abdicating responsibility and leaving problems to fester,” the report says. The energy experts we interviewed were pretty harsh on leadership, too, but were also a little more nuanced, seeing the lack of leadership as driven both by the intense partisanship in the political culture and the influence of big money on decision making.