HOUSTON -- The public has become more open to offshore drilling and the oil and gas industry in general than it was a year ago, a new opinion poll finds.

Though the results find the public still favors a greater shift to alternative energy sources, the survey released yesterday by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press shows increased support for more oil and natural gas extraction in the United States. The public has also largely gotten over its concerns about offshore energy development since the 2010 Macondo well spill, the organization finds.

Almost two-thirds of respondents, or 65 percent, said the United States should develop more offshore oil and gas wells. Pew says the level of support for offshore drilling is now where it was before the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster.

Just 44 percent said the same in June 2010, during the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, though support had recovered to 57 percent in favor last year.

And although more people say the nation should prioritize alternative energy first, the new survey suggests that wind, solar and other alternative energy industries actually lost some public support they enjoyed. Meanwhile, oil and gas companies gained it.

In March 2011, Pew reported that 63 percent of the public thought a shift to alternative sources of energy should take higher priority over oil and gas in the nation's energy policy. Just 29 percent said oil and gas should be prioritized first.

This year, that gap has narrowed by a significant margin. Just 52 percent now tell Pew that alternatives deserve top priority, while 39 percent want the nation to first focus on getting more oil and gas out of the ground. The survey released yesterday was conducted March 7-11 among 1,503 adults.

Pew's numbers may also give some comfort to firms that plan greater use of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," for oil and gas extraction. Of those who indicated they have heard about the technology, 52 percent said they favored its use, while 35 percent said they opposed it. Men tend to be more supportive than women, and opinion is evenly split among college graduates.

"Although young people are less likely to have heard about fracking, those who have are just as likely as older people to favor it," Pew researchers say in the report. "But there is a wide education difference in views about fracking. College graduates are about evenly split: 45 percent favor fracking while 43 percent are opposed. A majority of those with some college (56 percent) or a high school education or less (56 percent) support fracking."

Lisa Christian, a senior researcher at Pew, said this year's survey marks the first time her organization asked participants about their opinions on hydraulic fracturing. She said the results suggest only tenuous support for the practice. Far more people demonstrate support for the Keystone XL pipeline project, a similarly controversial topic in the energy world today, she noted.

"We asked last month about the Keystone pipeline, and awareness is about the same -- about a quarter heard a lot, a little over 60 percent had heard at least a little -- but the balance of opinion there was, I think, 66-23," Christian said. "So by more than two to one, people were saying the government should approve the Keystone pipeline rather than saying they shouldn't approve it."

The presidential campaign season seems to have largely flipped support for renewable power among Republicans.

Last year, Republicans narrowly favored renewables over oil and gas, 47 percent versus 44 percent. This year, however, Republican support for wind, solar, hydrogen fuels cells and other technologies has dwindled to just 33 percent saying those should be prioritized, while 59 percent now want the country to focus first on oil and gas.

Pew attributes higher gasoline prices to the stronger showings for offshore and onshore oil and gas production in this year's survey. But the financial pain at the pump hasn't affected public opinion in other areas.

According to the survey, the vast majority of U.S. residents want the government to mandate the production of more fuel-efficient vehicles, 78 percent versus the 19 percent who say they oppose such regulations.

And though 65 percent favor more offshore drilling, a greater percentage, 69 percent, want more funding for research into alternative energy technologies. Support falls along partisan lines -- 81 percent of Democrats and 70 percent of independents said they favored more funding for alternative energy research and development. Only 52 percent of Republicans agreed.

The public remains evenly split on the topic of tax credits for oil and gas companies.

When asked if firms should be given tax cuts to encourage more drilling, just 46 percent said they favored this idea. Fifty percent said they were against it. Pew said those numbers largely remain unchanged since 2008.

Click here to read the poll.