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Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
Why Are Gas Prices Rising?
As gas prices soar, many Americans pin the blame on greed or a push for higher profits among oil companies, speculators and oil-producing nations.
About three-in-ten (31%) offer a variation on this theme -- greed, oil companies or speculation -- when asked what they think is the main reason gasoline prices have gone up recently, according to a Pew Research Center/Washington Post survey conducted April 28-May 1 among 1,006 adults.
Roughly two-in-ten (19%) cite the ongoing wars or unrest in Libya and elsewhere in the Middle East as the top reason for rising fuel prices. Another 14% attribute this to politics or national policies.
Just more than one-in-ten (12%) blame market factors, such as competition with other nations for limited supply (4%) or the approaching summer season (2%).
View the topline questionnaire and survey methodology at people-press.org.