United Liberty

As we noted yesterday, the commission looking into the oil spill is skeptical of the drilling moratorium that the Obama Administration insists on imposing. Residents of the area, from Louisiana to Florida, understand that the oil industry means a lot to the region and they aren’t thrilled about the idea either:

An ABC News-Washington Post poll found that three-quarters of residents in the most affected counties along the Gulf said the spill has hurt their area’s economy, including 55 percent who said it has had a strongly negative impact. One in four reported personal financial damage.

And there were other tolls: One in three personally has been depressed in the past few days because of the spill. Forty percent were angry about it; many others, upset if not angry.

Nonetheless, given their region’s reliance on the oil industry , most residents of the affected counties weren’t turning their backs on offshore drilling. By 60-38 percent, they opposed the Obama administration’s six-month moratorium on drilling (it got far more support nationally); and more, three-quarters, said drilling should resume at its existing level, or be expanded, in the future.

You can view the crosstabs here.

And in other news, how do Democrats justify pushing deepwater drilling companies to renegotiate their leases so they have to pay royalties to the feds?:

“At $80 a barrel, we don’t have to provide incentives to drill for free on public lands,’’ Markey said. “It gives us a chance to collect this money and use it to reduce the federal deficit.’’

Nothing about profit margin, just price per barrel. Nothing about how many of those operations are only competitive or profitable because they don’t have to pay royalties to the government. Nothing about how this policy would tend to push that $80 price tag higher. And they want the money just to cover their spending habit. Talk about an excuse to do what they always wanted to do anyway.