Article

 

Environmental Value Considerations in Public Attitudes About Alternative Energy Development in Oregon and Washington Public Deposited

Downloadable Content

Download PDF
https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/articles/sb397d516

Descriptions

Attribute NameValues
Creator
Abstract
  • The 2013 Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy signed by the Governors of California, Oregon and Washington and the Premier of British Columbia, launched a broadly announced public commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through multiple strategies. Those strategies include the development and increased use of renewable energy sources. The initiative recognized that citizens are both a central component in abating greenhouse gas emissions with regard to their energy use behaviors, and are important participants in the public policymaking process at both state and local levels of government. The study reported here examines whether either support or opposition to state government leadership in the development of alternative energy technologies can be explained by environmental values as measured by the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP). The research results are based on mail surveys of randomly selected households conducted throughout Oregon and Washington in late 2009 and early 2010. Findings suggest that younger and more highly educated respondents are significantly more likely than older and less educated respondents to either support or strongly support government policies to promote bioenergy, wind, geothermal, and solar energy. Those respondents with higher NEP scores are also more supportive of government promotion of wind, geothermal and solar technologies than are those with lower NEP scores. Support for wave energy does not show a statistical correlation with environmental values; maybe a reflection of this technology’s nascent level of development. The paper concludes with a consideration of the implications of these findings for environmental management.
  • Keywords: New Ecological Paradigm (NEP), Public acceptance of energy technology, Renewable energy policy, Environmental values
  • Keywords: New Ecological Paradigm (NEP), Public acceptance of energy technology, Renewable energy policy, Environmental values
Resource Type
DOI
Date Available
Date Issued
Citation
  • Steel, B. S., Pierce, J. C., Warner, R. L., & Lovrich, N. P. (2015). Environmental Value Considerations in Public Attitudes About Alternative Energy Development in Oregon and Washington. Environmental Management, 55(3), 634-645. doi:10.1007/s00267-014-0419-3
Journal Title
Journal Volume
  • 55
Journal Issue/Number
  • 3
Rights Statement
Funding Statement (additional comments about funding)
  • This research was supported by a Higher Education Challenge Grant from the UnitedState Department of Agriculture (GRANT00561692), and by the School of Public Policyat Oregon State University.
Publisher
Peer Reviewed
Language
Replaces

Relationships

Parents:

This work has no parents.

Items