One year later

One year ago this week, an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig plunged the nation into 85 days of tension and worry. Millions watched on television each day as massive amounts of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico and engineers tried to improvise ways to cap the ruptured well. It seemed at the time to be an environmental disaster of unimaginable dimensions. In all, 206 million gallons were spilled.

A year later, we know that not all of the dire predictions materialized. The Gulf itself was able to process and disperse much of the oil, but there are some lingering impacts and oil continues to wash ashore even to this day.

The BP spill, so named because British Petroleum operated the rig, was thought by some to be a defining moment in the movement to spur the nation to wean itself off oil. Americans, the thinking went, finally were brought face to face with the ugly, dirty side of how they power their vehicles, brought to them day after day courtesy of an underwater "spill-cam."

A newly released CNN opinion poll shows this didn't necessarily happen. One year later, 69 percent of Americans favor expanding drilling operations in domestic waters. That figure is roughly the same as it was in 2008 polls. Support for drilling dipped by 20 percent during the middle of the BP spill, then rebounded. Also, roughly half support opening up the Alaska Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.

Some of this may be due to the fickle, short-term attention span of the American public. Even the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan has moved off front pages and the collective minds of many people, and the war in Libya is fast passing from view.

But it can be too easy to underestimate the intelligence of the American public, and views may be more complex upon closer examination.

Gallup found in January that 83 percent of Americans favor Congress passing an energy bill that provides incentives for using alternative energy sources, compared with 65 percent who favor a bill to expand drilling and exploration for oil and gas. March data showed that 66 percent think the United States should emphasize alternative energy, with just 26 percent saying it should emphasize production of oil, gas and coal.

Our guess is that people understand the dangers inherent in oil, but they also appreciate how much we need it while alternative energies are being developed.