81% Worry Egypt’s Problems Will Push Up Price of Gas

Voters are worried that they’ll pay a lot more at the pump because of the ongoing political unrest in Egypt.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 81% of Likely U.S. Voters think it is at least somewhat likely that the political crisis in the Middle Eastern country will significantly increase the cost of gasoline, with 46% who say it is Very Likely. (To see survey question wording, click here.) 

However, just 33% of voters believe it is even somewhat likely that Egypt will shut down the canal while 49% view that as unlikely. Those figures include 10% who say the Suez Canal is Very Likely to be closed and eight percent (8%) who think it’s Not At All Likely.

Millions of gallons of crude oil pass through the Suez Canal weekly.

Most Americans expect the unrest in Egypt to spread to other Middle Eastern countries and think that will be bad for the United States.  But they also say America should stay out of the situation there.

Voters give mixed marks to President Obama’s response to the crisis in Egypt, but many think United Nations involvement would make things worse. 

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on January 31-February 1, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.