The finding are part of a Gallup tracker poll released Monday.
The 34% who didn’t find the energy situation “very serious” is down 10% from last year, when motorists were paying historically high gas prices.
In addition to the 34% of U.S. adult respondents who say the energy situation is very serious, 51% describe it as “fairly serious,” and 14% said it is “not at all serious.” The latter two readings increased by five and four percentage points, respectively, since last year.
While gas prices are lower than last year’s, they are re-approaching $5 a gallon at the pump, with U.S. companies saying such rises are largely the results of changes in the global market and the push toward renewable energy will rely a lot on resources from global competitor China.