What America is Thinking on Energy Issues - 69 percent of voters support Keystone XL pipeline

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 13, 2013 – Sixty-nine percent of American voters favor building the Keystone XL pipeline, while 83 percent believe the pipeline would strengthen the nation’s energy security and 92 percent agree jobs are important when considering the project, according to a new Harris Interactive poll released today. Strong majorities of voters in both political parties and among independents support building the pipeline, the poll found.

“The Keystone XL wraps new American jobs and energy security into a single common sense package," said API President and CEO Jack Gerard. "That’s why voters overwhelmingly back it, and that’s why the nation needs it and why the administration should approve it. Millions of people are still looking for jobs in the United States, and we still import nearly half our oil, much from suppliers far less reliable and friendly than Canada.”

The telephone poll of 1,001 registered voters also found that the vast majority of people understood the need to link up Canadian crude oil supplies with U.S. refineries and considered it important that most dollars spent on Canadian oil by America return to the U.S. when Canadians use them to buy American goods and services. Voters also found it important that support for the Keystone XL project in Congress is bipartisan.

The Keystone XL pipeline is a six-state, multi-billion dollar, privately financed infrastructure project that would employ thousands of Americans. The project, which has passed three environmental reviews in four years, is shovel-ready, but work cannot start until the administration approves it.

API is a national trade association that represents all segments of America’s technology-driven oil and natural gas industry. Its more than 500 members – including large integrated companies, exploration and production, refining, marketing, pipeline, and marine businesses, and service and supply firms – provide most of the nation’s energy. The industry also supports 9.2 million U.S. jobs and 7.7 percent of the U.S. economy, delivers $86 million a day in revenue to our government, and, since 2000, has invested over $2 trillion in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives.

Methodology
The study was conducted February 5 – 10, 2013, by telephone by Harris Interactive on behalf of the American Petroleum Institute among 1,001 registered voters across the country, with a sampling error of +/-3.0 percent. Harris Interactive is one of the world’s leading custom market research firms, known widely for the Harris Poll. For more information, visit www.harrisinteractive.com.

"What America is Thinking on Energy Issues" is a public opinion series provided by API, offering data to inform policy discussions and ensure policymakers and others know Americans' perspectives on key energy issues.

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Keystone XL Pipeline Poll Interviews

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