Shell’s Perdido offshore drilling and production platform in the Gulf of Mexico southwest of Houston. (Gary Tramontina/Corbis via Getty Images)

More Americans now oppose (51%) than favor (42%) allowing more offshore oil and gas drilling in U.S. waters, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in mid-January. The share of Americans who favor expanded offshore oil and gas drilling has declined 10 percentage points since 2014.

Attitudes about expanded offshore oil and gas drilling are divided by age and party, as well as by where people live. People who live within 25 miles of a coastline are less supportive of offshore drilling than are those who live farther from a coast.

Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are overwhelmingly in favor of expanding offshore drilling for oil and gas. Seven-in-ten say they favor allowing more drilling, and only a quarter say they oppose it, according to the survey of 1,503 adults conducted Jan. 10-15.

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