{"id":13478,"date":"2015-04-17T13:48:42","date_gmt":"2015-04-17T18:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/5-facts-about-the-bp-oil-spill\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:19:45","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:19:45","slug":"5-facts-about-the-bp-oil-spill","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2015\/04\/17\/5-facts-about-the-bp-oil-spill\/","title":{"rendered":"5 facts about the BP oil spill"},"content":{"rendered":"

On April 20, 2010, an explosion rocked the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and sending oil gushing into the water<\/a>. By the time the well was sealed months later, about 5 million barrels of oil had spilled into the Gulf. Here are five key facts about the oil spill and its aftermath:<\/p>\n\n

\"Favor<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Support for offshore drilling plummeted after the 2010 spill, but has largely recovered since.<\/strong> Between February and May of 2010, the share of Americans who favored more offshore oil and gas drilling fell from 63% to 54%. By June, support dropped another 10 percentage points and more people opposed increased drilling (52%) than favored it (44%). But support rose subsequent years, though not to the same heights. Last December<\/a>, 56% said they favored the government allowing more offshore drilling and 40% opposed the practice. In that survey, about three-quarters of Republicans (77%) favored more drilling, as did 55% of independents. Only 41% of Democrats favored more drilling, including just one-in-three liberal Democrats (33%).<\/p>\n\n

The months-long BP story was one of the two biggest stories of the year in terms of news interest.<\/strong> In the week ending July 25, 2010 \u2013 shortly after BP said it had capped the leak<\/a> and just before the resignation of CEO Tony Hayward \u2013 fully 59% of American adults were following the Gulf leak very closely. The only story as closely watched in 2010 was that of another disaster, the January earthquake in Haiti (60% paid close attention at the peak).<\/p>\n\n

\"FT_15.04.17_BP_InterestCoverage\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Public interest went hand-in-hand with the vast amount of news coverage of the spill.<\/strong> The Gulf spill was the most covered news story<\/a> in nine weeks out of a 14-week period studied by Pew Research Center. Our study of media coverage from April 20 to July 28, 2010, showed that the spill accounted for 22% of the newshole (almost double the next-biggest story) and generated 31% of cable news airtime. Public interest in the news remained high, even in weeks when news coverage dropped off; in 13 of those 14 weeks, the public followed the story of the spill more closely than any other.<\/p>\n\n

\"FT_15.04.17_BP_TrustedMedia\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

The public trusted news organizations more than the federal government and far more than BP for information about the leak.<\/strong> About half (52%) said in July 2010<\/a> that they had a lot or some trust in the information about the spill coming from the federal government; just about one-third (34%) said the same about information from BP. News organizations received the most confidence from the public, with 64% saying they trusted at least some of the news organizations\u2019 information about the spill. By July, though, the public had grown\u00a0weary of the amount of coverage. Although about half (49%) said news organizations were giving the story the right amount of coverage and 18% said there was too little, 31% at that point said it was too much coverage, up from 14% two months earlier.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

While support for offshore drilling has largely rebounded, many Americans also support investments in alternative energy. <\/strong>By a two-to-one ratio, a greater share of the public favors developing alternatives<\/a> like wind, solar and hydrogen over expanding ventures into oil, coal and natural gas (60% vs. 30%). In fact, the public takes something of an all-of-the-above approach to energy: 81% support better fuel-efficiency requirements and 58% want more mining and drilling on federal land. An additional 41% would favor the government promoting the increased use of nuclear power.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2010 spill was one of the two biggest stories of the year in terms of news interest. Support for offshore drilling plummeted, but has largely recovered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_crdt_document":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[264,270],"bylines":[754],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[527,520,518],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-13478","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-climate-energy-environment","category-energy","bylines-seth-motel","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-journalism","research-teams-politics","research-teams-science"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":536,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2015\/04\/17\/5-facts-about-the-bp-oil-spill\/","art_direction":{"A1":{"id":24794,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/04\/FT_15.04.17_BPFavorOppose.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/04\/FT_15.04.17_BPFavorOppose.png?w=420&h=317&crop=1","width":420,"height":317,"chartArt":false},"A2":{"id":24794,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/04\/FT_15.04.17_BPFavorOppose.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/04\/FT_15.04.17_BPFavorOppose.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"A3":{"id":24794,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/04\/FT_15.04.17_BPFavorOppose.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/04\/FT_15.04.17_BPFavorOppose.png?w=194&h=110&crop=1","width":194,"height":110,"chartArt":false},"A4":{"id":24794,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/04\/FT_15.04.17_BPFavorOppose.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/04\/FT_15.04.17_BPFavorOppose.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"XL":{"id":24794,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/04\/FT_15.04.17_BPFavorOppose.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/04\/FT_15.04.17_BPFavorOppose.png?w=420&h=385&crop=1","width":420,"height":385,"chartArt":false},"social":{"id":24794,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/04\/FT_15.04.17_BPFavorOppose.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/04\/FT_15.04.17_BPFavorOppose.png?w=420&h=385&crop=1","width":420,"height":385,"chartArt":false}},"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"5 facts about the BP oil spill","description":"The 2010 spill was one of the two biggest stories of the year in terms of news interest. 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