Poll: Slim majority sees offshore drilling ban increasing prices at the pump

A slim majority of likely voters believe the Obama administration’s decision to back off oil-and-gas leasing in Atlantic Coast waters and the eastern Gulf of Mexico will raise gasoline prices and harm the economy, according to a poll unveiled Monday by the Republican-leaning Rasmussen Reports.

Staff for Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) — the presumptive chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee in the next Congress — circulated the polling results Monday, a sign he’s seeking to build political momentum against the Interior Department’s drilling decision last week.

According to the Rasmussen poll, conducted Dec. 3-4, 54 percent of likely voters say the continued drilling ban will increase gasoline prices, while 11 percent believe it will make pump prices go down. Twenty-five percent say it will have no effect.

Fifty-four percent of likely voters polled also say the decision will harm the economy, while just 15 percent say it would help.

The Interior Department announced last week it is reversing plans to sell oil-and-gas leases off the coast of mid-Atlantic and southeastern states during 2012 to 2017. The administration is also no longer seeking expanded drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, where a 2006 law largely prevents leasing until 2022.

The poll surveyed 1,000 likely voters nationwide and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points, according to Rasmussen.