ALBUQUERQUE — New Mexicans favor more aggressive offshore oil and gas drilling, allowing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and building new nuclear power plants, according to a poll commissioned by the Albuquerque Journal.

New Mexicans support expanded offshore oil and gas drilling by 64 percent, compared with 24 percent who oppose it, the Journal reported in a copyright story. Twelve percent were undecided.

Among Republican respondents, 90 percent said they favor "more aggressive offshore drilling for oil and gas," with only 4 percent opposed and 6 percent undecided.

Democratic respondents also favored more aggressive drilling, but by a narrower margin. Forty-nine percent were in favor, 34 percent were opposed and 17 percent were undecided, the poll found.

New Mexicans also support drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by 54 percent to 37 percent, the poll showed. Nine percent were undecided.

Among Republican respondents, 80 percent supported the arctic drilling and 15 percent opposed it. The state's Democratic respondents polled at 38 percent supporting it, 49 against the idea.

Brian Sanderoff, owner of Research & Polling, said residents in northwestern and eastern New Mexico — the state's two oil- and gas-producing regions — showed the strongest support for offshore and ANWR drilling.

New Mexicans also support expansion of nuclear power to generate electricity. Sixty-three percent favor building more nuclear power plants, 25 percent oppose the idea and 12 percent were undecided, the poll found.

Eighty percent of Republicans polled said they support more nuclear power with nine percent opposed. Democratic respondents said they favor nuclear power expansion by a 54 percent to 33 percent margin.

The poll of 400 likely New Mexico voters was conducted Sept. 29-Oct. 2. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.




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