Poll: 60% of gulf residents want to continue offshore drilling

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.