Gallup Poll on Fracking Shows it to be a Partisan/Political Issue

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Gallup is out with a nationwide poll that asks this question: Do you favor or oppose hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” as a means of increasing the production of natural gas and oil in the U.S.? The headline that news organizations are reporting is that across all age groups and party affiliations, it’s a 40/40 split–40% favor fracking and 40% oppose it. If you dig a little deeper, you find this should be the real headline: Republicans favor fracking, Democrats oppose it. If you dig deeper still, you’ll find those who have grown a brain (50+ years old) are in favor of fracking, while inexperienced (and frankly dumber) young people oppose it. That about sums up the poll numbers (see them below). At least, those are the poll numbers shared by Gallup. They don’t bother to share the cross-tabs–the underlying details of the poll. We’d love to see it broken out by region–or by state. Did Gallup weight the poll with people from New England or California and under-represent places like Texas and North Dakota? We don’t know. Therefore we don’t know how truly reflective this poll is of “average” American opinion…

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