Poll: 70% Say BP Handling Oil Spill Badly

Topics: Polling ,; Domestic Issues

CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto.

As oil continues gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, Americans polled by CBS News have expressed frustration with both the global oil giant operating the deep sea well and President Obama for their handling of the environmental disaster.

Special Section: Disaster in the Gulf

Only 18 percent of those polled said they approved of how British Petroleum PLC, which was leasing the Deepsea Horizon Rig when it erupted in a ball of flames and sank, was acting in response. An overwhelming majority -- 70 percent -- said they disapproved.

President Obama fared slightly better, with 45 percent saying they disapproved of his handling of the crisis. That still represents an overall negative rating, however, as only 35 percent said they approved of his words and deeds since the disaster struck.

One in five of those questioned about the government and BP's handling of the oil spill said they had no opinion.

In a CBS News poll conducted earlier this month, 46 percent of Americans said they supported increasing offshore drilling for oil, marking a drop since 2008. That support has changed little in recent weeks: 45 percent said they were in favor of more offshore drilling in the new poll, while 46 percent said the associated costs and risks are too great.

There is a significant political divide over this question, with most Republicans saying they favor further drilling, while most Democrats and independents did not.

Read the Complete Poll

This poll was conducted among a random sample of 1,054 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone May 20-24, 2010. Phone numbers were dialed from random digit dial samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher.

This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

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by crazyone12 May 27, 2010 8:17 PM EDT: Criminal Charges Should Be Filed Against B.P.This Is Once Again A Multi Billion Dollar Company Getting Away With The Destruction Of Our Planet No One Is Accountable As Long As You Have Billions Of Dollars And A Few Politicians In Your Pockets The Affects Of This Spill Will Be Felt For Many Generations To Come If Our Oceans Even Survive This The Earth Belongs To All Of Us Not To Just The Rich And Powerful They Are Not Only Destroying The Oceans They Are Wiping Out A Major Food Supply Maybe The Down Fall Of Man Will Be By Man; Reply to this comment


by jackielou9 May 26, 2010 8:26 PM EDT: If some small business made a mistake that caused loss of life, the government would be all over it like flies on stink. Ovbiously B.P. can't correct the problem that it caused , why are we not trying to correct it then bill them. There are concequences for everyone else. This is a terrible tragedy.; Reply to this comment

by rdepontb May 25, 2010 6:52 PM EDT

On what basis are people saying the folks at BP, or the government for that matter, could do a better job controlling his oil leak? The problem is that no one knows how to handle such a catastrophe at that level. Not even Cheney, who's smugness got us all into this uncontrollable mess.

Those with the expertise to even work at those depths are working on the problem. They are meeting with the country's and the world's top scientists and engineers. Enough with the accusations---the problem was in letting the well be dug in the first place.

Frustration in this matter is understandable, but it will not help bring any new ideas into the open.

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by jackielou9 May 26, 2010 8:30 PM EDT: If they didn't have a :fail safe "in place why did they get a permit to drill that deep?


by daleaberg May 25, 2010 5:40 PM EDT: Crush the Riser Pipe shut, where it lies on the seafloor.

Use the 250,000 lb containment dome, dropped from 10' above the lying riser, as a hammer.

Repeat as Necessary until riser pipe is deformed shut. Crush away from assembly flanges.

This high strength steel pipe will yield shut, not fail, under the impact of the dropped dome.

Add 1" plate steel under the riser pipe as a mandrel, if necessary.; Reply to this comment


by p_syrus May 25, 2010 4:52 PM EDT: And ...

Over 99% of the american people don't ...

...know their @ss from a drill hole in the ground.

...give a damn about anything that isn't immediately profitable or pleasurable to them.

...have a friggin' clue over the technical difficulties involved in shutting down a runaway oil well 5000 feet below the ocean's surface.

...want to drive large heavy vehicles unnecessarily and at ridiculous speeds with little concern for environmental impacts.

So frankly, who gives a damn about u.s. public opinion?; Reply to this comment


by Repower May 25, 2010 3:23 PM EDT: Or sit at their computers all day and look for "Do you approve of offshore drilling?" polls on Google and click on every single one of them under twelve different email addresses. Yup.; Reply to this comment


by gig76 May 25, 2010 1:23 PM EDT: Yeah, hang the Queen of England for this BP spill. It's under her watch and leadership!; Reply to this comment


by barbaram99 May 25, 2010 12:22 PM EDT: America is dealing with companies out of nation..We need to hols the accountable as they are in the know..We the people did not cause this,,The companies need to pay..If the govt is to blame than they need to fix it..End the cosy relationship..Should have been a warning when America install/ed oil persons in key places..I don't buy gas as we don't drive nor mow the lawn..If I had to it be a push reel mower .It is appalling..They can put the rigs up but they can't handle that when it happened in order to have stopped it at the stare..This Amercia and thry must step up to the plate in this matter..Use the oil profits to clean it up and fix..I could careless of the their profits when they do things that are clearly wrong with no thought of the planet and the living things that live on it..They are poor care takers of the earth..I can't believe with the tech out there this could not be handled properly..Money and greed..I realise money is needed to live..I miss the days when we could live.My pearents could.I member growing up..It was better..Now it is awful..I don't care wha owns the oil ptatforms etc..If this won't change things to move the govt who uses the most oil for their war machine to realise they are just as bad..If the govt did not get free oil then the military would not be every where but here at home..We use the bus.; Reply to this comment


by pragmatist1 May 25, 2010 10:38 AM EDT: Wonder what the poll results would have been if the same question were to have been posed, but substituting the term Federal government instead of BP?; Reply to this comment


by rockcutr May 25, 2010 8:19 AM EDT: Kinda funny BP stating that they shall clean up every drop of oil. Yeah, good luck with that. Not optimistic, just plain ignorant. Just like the whole mess in the first place. The british petrolium company has declared war on the gulf states and bp bosses are sitting on their hands. It has been stated that bp was involved in the Exon Valdez spill. Great! Folks in alaska are still waiting for them to (clean up every drop of oil). Money promised to clean up that mess sat in courts for the better part of 20 years. Mostly getting sucked up by lawyers. All the while our lovely president is playing politics instead of getting tough on these criminals. Isn't it time to hang these environmental terrorist? There are millions of US citizens adversly affected by this act of stupidity.
Those responsible need to pay right now.; Reply to this comment