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Nine out of ten Alaskans: Oil and gas industry good for Alaska November survey says 77 percent of Alaskans favor continued oil and gas lease sales in Cook Inlet Tom Hall PNA Reporter
Ninety-five percent of Alaskans believe that oil and gas development has been good or very good for the state of Alaska. “You will almost never find 95 percent of Alaskans agreeing on anything,” Dave Dittman of Dittman Research told the weekly meeting of the Alaska Support Industry Alliance on Feb. 5 at the Petroleum Club.
In November, Dittman polled 506 Alaskans in 64 communities (seven large, 57 small) maintaining the correct gender, political and employment sector balances of the general population. Respondents were asked how they personally felt about the oil industry, and nearly nine out of 10 provided favorable responses, while only 7 percent responded unfavorably. Eighty-four percent of Alaskans also believe the industry has done a good job environmentally.
With the exception of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in March 1989 (and even then the favorable rating was still at 50 percent), the latest survey results reflect a 30-year approval trend of the oil industry. “Someday,” said Dittman, “someone will write a doctoral thesis on how to do it right. I can’t imagine any other industry, whether it’s timber, fisheries, or whatever, in any other state — that depends on a particular industry for its livelihood — that will have this much support for it.”
Other results from the survey revealed that 77 percent of Alaskans support continued oil and gas lease sales in the Cook Inlet area; and — continuing a 13 year trend — 67 percent of Alaskans want ANWR opened for exploration and development. Some Alaskans fuzzy on certain issues While 91 percent of Alaskans agreed that it was important or very important for Alaska to have a fair, timely and consistent permitting system for resource development, 32 percent weren’t sure if such a system was in place. Only 38 percent believed they knew a lot about the purpose and role of the Alaska Coastal Management Program. Dittman said that knowledge of the program varies by region. “The coastal communities obviously know more about it, but still, it’s largely unknown,” he said. And, while 91 percent of Alaskans believed it was somewhat or very important for the state to have a stable tax climate to encourage resource development, only 50 percent believed the state had such a climate.Alaskans favor balanced budget, reduced state spending Ninety-eight percent of Alaskans believe the state needs to have a long-range financial plan; 65 percent say the state should continue to cut spending; and 69 percent think that Alaska is facing a budget problem that needs to be solved. To make up for the loss of future oil revenues from declining production on the North Slope, 39 percent of Alaskans believe that reduced spending should be used to balance the budget. Twenty-one percent favor using earnings from the permanent fund, and 18 percent believe the state should raise taxes. Dittman noted, “If you combine ‘raise taxes’ and ‘use permanent fund earnings,’ you also get 39 percent. It’s a perfect fit.” He suggested that some combination of the three options would probably close the budget gap and emphasized, “The reduced spending has to be a component.”
The top four targets for spending cuts were the number of state employees (18 percent), entitlement programs (16 percent), wages and benefits paid to state employees (14 percent) and capital projects such as new state facilities and roads (13 percent). If the first and third targets (number of state employees and their wages and benefits) are combined, then “you’ve got a third of it focused on that particular area,” said Dittman.
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