Most Americans think exporting oil will raise gasoline prices, according to a poll released Thursday.
Fifty-two percent of respondents to a survey by the Morning Consult said they think sending crude abroad would cause more pain at the pump, though more support (38 percent) rather than oppose (34 percent) ending a 39-year-old ban on exporting oil.
The results touch on a growing debate on whether to end the federal restrictions on sending unprocessed crude oil to other nations. While many Republicans would like to do so, still others are concerned about the reaction constituents might have if they advocate exports on a commodity so closely linked to household checkbooks.
Many studies, however, have suggested ending the oil export ban would provide an economic benefit. A joint Brookings Institution and NERA Economic Consulting study that came out Tuesday said the economy would grow between $600 billion and $1.8 trillion, while gasoline prices would fall 9 cents per gallon in 2015, if the ban were scrapped.
That study also said the United States would strengthen its hand in international politics by being an arbiter of free trade and keeping oil supplies flowing when shocks stymie shipments from elsewhere.
But the Morning Consult poll showed Americans are skeptical of that. Thirty-one percent of respondents said recent events in Ukraine and the Middle East — where oil and gas supplies have been wielded as geopolitical weapons — made them less likely to want to export oil, compared with 23 percent who were more amenable to doing so.
The poll also noted most Americans support building the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, which would bring the carbon-dense fuel from Canada to the Gulf Coast but is in federal administrative limbo. Fifty-four percent supported building the pipeline, while 19 percent opposed. Among Republicans, 71 percent backed the pipeline, compared with 44 percent of Democrats.
The online poll of 2,252 registered voters was conducted online between Sept. 4 and 7, and has a margin of error of 2.1 percent.
