Soaring gasoline prices appear to be changing public views about the merits of oil and gas drilling in environmentally sensitive areas like Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a new poll shows.

A nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted June 18-29 among 2,004 adults and released Tuesday, finds that half of Americans surveyed now support drilling in ANWR, a jump from 42 percent in February.

Congress has repeatedly refused to open the pristine Alaskan wildlife refuge to oil and gas exploration, and it also has maintained a moratorium on most drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

But this year, congressional Republicans have hammered away at Democrats for opposing more domestic drilling because of the potential environmental impact, and the new Pew survey indicates they may be finding a more receptive audience for their arguments.

Nearly half (47 percent) of those questioned in the Pew poll now see energy exploration as more important than energy conservation and price or use regulation, up from 35 percent in February. The proportion saying it is more important to increase energy conservation and regulation has declined from 55 percent to 45 percent.

It was the first time in seven years that more people opted for energy exploration than conservation and price regulation.

Much of the increase in support for energy exploration has come from groups crucial to Democrats in this year’s elections — young people, liberals, independents, women and people with at least some college education.

About the same proportions of Democrats and Republicans now say expanded exploration, rather than increased conservation, should take precedence, Pew reported. “In February, far more Republicans than Democrats expressed this view.”

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