---
title: "Offshore Drilling Support One Year after Gulf Oil Spill"
description: "In a survey taken roughly one year after the oil spill in the Gulf, a 57%-majority of Americans favored allowing more oil and gas drilling in U.S. waters, up 13 points from last summer."
date: "2011-04-19"
authors:
  - name: "Russell Heimlich"
    job_title: "Former web developer"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/russell-heimlich/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2011/04/19/offshore-drilling-support-one-year-after-gulf-oil-spill/"
---

# Offshore Drilling Support One Year after Gulf Oil Spill

A year ago today, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that would eventually spill an immense amount of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The accident had a sustainable effect on public support for drilling. The percentage of Americans favoring more oil and gas drilling in U.S. waters fell from 63% in February 2010 to 44% in June 2010. In a survey taken roughly a year after the disaster, however, support for drilling has rebounded, increasing 13 points from the June poll. In a March 2011 survey, 57% of the public favored more oil and gas drilling in U.S. waters while just 37% opposed it. While support for oil and gas drilling has increased across political groups in the past year, there is still a wide partisan divide. In the March 2011 survey, 81% of Republicans favored allowing more offshore oil and gas drilling in U.S. waters, compared with 54% of independents and 46% of Democrats. [Read More](https://www.pewresearch.org/pubs/1934/support-nuclear-power-japan-gas-prices-offshore-oil-gas-drilling)