API Energy Survey
June 29, 2009
I hope you had a great weekend despite House passage of the Waxman-Markey bill. Now the focus will move to the Senate where Barbara Boxer reportedly plans to hold mark-up of a similar bill at the end of July.
I’m writing to you today, however, about another issue. This morning API released the results of its third annual “Energy IQ” survey, intended to gauge Americans’ knowledge about energy issues. Considering the gravity of some of the energy proposals being debated on Capitol Hill right now, the results are particularly striking.
While the survey revealed that Americans now recognize the United States will need more energy in the coming years, respondents vastly underestimated the amount of oil and natural gas that will be needed to meet that demand. Conversely, respondents overestimated the role that renewable energy sources will play in meeting future demand, the amount of oil the U.S. imports from the Middle East, and oil and natural gas industry earnings.
A more detailed analysis of the findings can be found at http://acuf.org/issues/issue128/090320news.asp, along with a video and an interactive widget that you can embed in your blog so your readers can quiz themselves. I also will post a podcast about the survey tomorrow, and place a series of posts on the Energy Tomorrow Blog every day this week, with each day featuring a new theme.
Jane Van Ryan
API
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The third annual Energy IQ survey, conducted for the American Petroleum Institute (API) by Harris Interactive®, comes as a new administration and Congress are pursuing energy and climate policies that will determine America’s economic competitiveness for years to come.
In comparing the new results to surveys from previous years, Harris found that Americans are more aware of how current policies limit domestic oil and natural gas production, but they also continue to subscribe to common, yet critical, misperceptions about how the industry operates and the energy we’ll need in the future.
Demand: Americans understand that we need more energy to grow our economy, but they continue to underestimate the amount of oil and natural gas we’ll need in years to come.
- While the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects U.S. energy demand will increase 9 percent during the next 20 years, only 5 percent of respondents chose the correct answer. The majority overestimated this number, believing that U.S. demand would increase 16 to 21 percent.
- When asked about the role fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal will play in meeting global energy demand, only 10 percent of respondents answered correctly that fossil fuels will meet 85 percent of this demand. This is the second consecutive year this number has dropped even though EIA figures for future U.S. reliance on fossil fuels have risen by five percent since 2008.
Supply: Americans overestimate the amount of oil and natural gas supplied to the U.S. by the Persian Gulf countries and underestimate the amount that is supplied from North America.
- According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), 12 percent of the oil consumed last year in the U.S. came from the Persian Gulf countries. Only 7 percent of respondents chose correctly, while more than 40 percent believed that over 30 percent of our oil supply came from the Persian Gulf.
- Fifty-three percent of respondents believed that Saudi Arabia was the largest U.S. supplier of imported crude oil. In fact, according to the DOE, Canada is our largest supplier.
Taxes: Americans underestimate the industry’s contributions to the U.S. economy through jobs and taxes, and overestimate the industry’s profits.
- Only 15 percent of respondents knew that six million Americans are employed directly or indirectly by the oil and natural gas industry.
- Only 9 percent of respondents knew that oil companies pay more than 40 percent in income taxes as a share of their income. The majority thought that it was less than 30 percent, and one-third of all respondents believed companies pay less than 15 percent.
- Similarly, when asked how much the oil and natural gas industry paid in taxes over the past three years, only 10 percent of respondents answered correctly—$242 billion. One quarter of respondents believed that the U.S. oil and natural gas industry contributed less than $100 billion.
- More than 40 percent of respondents believed that the oil and natural gas industry earn more than 20 cents per every dollar of sales. In fact, the industry earns just below 6 cents on every dollar.
The survey also found that other misconceptions exist about U.S. oil company stock ownership and industry investment in alternative fuels. For more information, read the full Energy IQ survey and test your energy knowledge.
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