The American Petroleum Institute just released its Energy IQ Survey that you can access here. The survey, which also comes in a printable PDF form, asks a series of questions that Americans will find both informative and surprising.

It’s easy to see that rising gas prices are hurting American households. Karen Campbell, the Heritage Foundation’s Policy Analyst in macroeconomics, found that if prices continue to rise at an accelerated pace over the course of a year,

• Total employment would decrease by 586,000 jobs,
• Disposable personal income would decrease by $532 billion,
• Personal consumption expenditure would decrease by $400 billion, and
• Personal savings would be spent to help pay the cost.

On Monday, President Bush lifted the executive ban on offshore continental shelf drilling (OCS); it is now on Congress to lift its restrictions on offshore drilling to expand supply domestically. Heritage’s Ben Lieberman writes that 85% of the OCS is currently off limits, and these policies were readily accepted when energy and gas prices were cheap. OCS restrictions should have been lifted years ago in order to have the supply of oil and natural gas available today; however, lifting the executive order is a step in the right direction.