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new poll by the Pew Research Center found that 85% of Americans surveyed agreed that we are addicted to oil. Fifty percent thought that we could end our dependence on foreign oil within 20 years.
The part that I found most peculiar is that 58% of Republicans but only 43% of Democrats believed that it was possible to end our dependence on foreign oil in 20 years???
The poll raises two big questions:
- Why the pessimism among Democrats? Of course Bush won't do anything about this issue, but 20 years from now? Does it go deeper than a political malaise and say something more?
- I still don't get the jump from thinking we are "addicted" to oil to only eschewing a particular kind of oil (i.e. the "foreign" variety). If we're addicted, we are addicted. Period. And the solutions we need to be working toward should be ending our dependence on oil--not just the amount that comes from overseas. Environmentalists need to do a better job of framing this issue as being pro-oil/anti-oil rather than domestic oil/foreign oil.