2021 Polling Shows Americans Support Pipelines
The Association of Oil Pipe Lines (AOPL) released new polling data on March 31 that measures the sentiment of the American public toward pipelines, climate change and the energy transition.
By wide margins across key audiences, Americans support pipelines to move their energy and want to avoid addressing climate change in ways that increase their energy costs.
“The American public understands we need pipelines to deliver them affordable energy safely and reliably,” said Andy Black, AOPL President and CEO.
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Pipelines deliver energy across the nation, but they often go unnoticed by the general public day-to-day because they travel underground. Policymakers are including pipelines in the national conversation on energy and climate. AOPL wanted to know what the American public thinks about pipelines and whether the loudest voices in the pipeline debate truly represent the feelings of the American public.
A survey of the American public finds:
- 70 percent of Americans have a positive impression of pipelines with their intensity of support increasing.
- Americans are worried about climate change, with concern steady at 68 percent in the past year.
- Americans want to minimize financial impacts to their energy bills to combat climate change.
- Nearly-three quarters of Americans want to avoid energy industry disruptions when combating climate change.
- Three in five Americans rank safety, affordability and reliability as their top 3 most important aspects of energy.
- The majority of Americans believe canceling pipelines is not a good way to combat climate change. Similarly, 74 percent of Americans oppose forcing oil and gas workers out of work and 71 percent oppose forcing oil and gas workers to take a pay cut.
The results of the poll are included in an AOPL report “70% of Americans View Oil Pipelines Favorably” along with its underlying data report. The reports include public sentiment towards pipelines, what Americans value in their energy delivery, and their thoughts on a variety of potential actions to address climate change.
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The independent polling firm Wakefield Research conducted an online quantitative survey of 3,000 U.S. consumers between Feb. 11 and Feb. 24, 2021 using an email invitation and online survey. The margin of error for this study is +/- 1.8 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level for the total sample. The survey included at least 200 persons in each of the following eight audiences: Gen Z, STEM professionals, rural landowners, urban renters, millennial moms, blue-collar, seniors, and older millennials.
AOPL represents liquids pipeline owners and operators transporting crude oil, petroleum products like gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, home heating oil, industrial feedstocks like ethane and rural fuels like propane. AOPL represents over 50 pipeline companies with over 200,000 miles of pipelines across America delivering affordable, reliable and plentiful energy to American drivers, families, farmers, workers and shoppers.
