New Episode of Resources Radio Explores Community Perceptions of Wind Energy
WASHINGTON, DC—This week, Resources for the Future (RFF) released a new installment of Resources Radio: "Community Perceptions of Wind Energy, with Sarah Mills of the University of Michigan.”
Host Daniel Raimi talks with Dr. Sarah Mills, Senior Project Manager at the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy. Sarah and colleagues recently published a study looking at how people perceive the positive and negative impacts of wind energy development. In the podcast, they discuss what the study found, what the implications are for state and local planning, and what this might mean for the fast-growing industry of wind energy in the United States.
Notable quotes from the podcast:
- “The theory is that attitudes about wind energy, acceptance of wind energy is really high in the American public, European public at large, but once a wind project is proposed for one's own community, attitudes dip … The U-shaped curve says that once a wind farm is built that attitudes [about wind energy] return to those high pre-construction levels.”—Sarah Mills (6:11)
- “If [wind developers] carry out an unfair process, if [they] behave poorly, effectively, that can just make those residents more and more upset by that project. That's the innovation here. I think developers are coming to realize that it's really important to gain social acceptance and act openly and transparently.”—Sarah Mills (17:50)
- “We see that state-level siting isn't always good even for the wind industry. Ohio has state-level siting and they have such a large setback distance now that you cannot site projects in the state of Ohio. So state-level siting does not necessarily mean you're going to overcome local opposition.”—Sarah Mills (24:47)
Resources Radio is a weekly podcast series exploring timely environmental, energy, and natural resources topics, and can be found on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, and SoundCloud.
Resources for the Future (RFF) is an independent, nonprofit research institution in Washington, DC. Its mission is to improve environmental, energy, and natural resource decisions through impartial economic research and policy engagement. RFF is committed to being the most widely trusted source of research insights and policy solutions leading to a healthy environment and a thriving economy.
Unless otherwise stated, the views expressed here are those of the individual authors and may differ from those of other RFF experts, its officers, or its directors. RFF does not take positions on specific legislative proposals.
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