66% of Brits Back Wind Power
April 19, 2012 | 
Author New survey reveals that only 8% are opposed
If you’ve been reading the tabloid headlines or the ravings of the climate denial hacks employed by the Telegraph and the Mail then no doubt you think wind power has had its day.
‘The tide has turned’ scream the turbophobic headlines as Donald Trump marches on Holyrood to save ‘Scatland’ . A mob of unruly Tory backbenchers, fearful of being poked in the eye by a turbine in their rural retreats, clamour for a moratorium on wind development. Barker caves in and announces no new onshore wind.
So is this a victory for public opinion? Well, not according to figures published today in an Ipsos Mori poll. When asked: “to what extent are you in favour of or opposed to the use of wind power in the UK” 66% of Britons were in favour and just 8% against.
For those who have been watching the sickening influence of a small number of highly organised climate change deniers on policy it is a familiar story – the empty vessels who make the most noise and are most adept at manipulating the media have an effect out of all proportion to their representation. In fact less than 8% of us oppose the use of wind power in the UK.
Posted in Onshore Wind
I think you should take care on how you interpret your pie chart. You will notice that 38% of those who were asked said that they “tend to favour” the use of wind power generation. To me this is a conditional acceptance of wind turbines and if the question was asked whether they would favour wind turbines situated near their homes or near their favorite beauty spot I think the answere would be quite different. Ask again if they favoured wealthy Land Onwners pocketing huge amounts of money in ground rent and 15 Multinational energy companies receiving almost 1billion pounds a year in subsidies( gauranteed for 25 yrs) in effect robbing the poor to give to the rich…. the response would be unequivocable and your pie chart would look very different.
It all depends on the question.
“Tending to Favour” is NOT by any means a positive response and an unqualified acceptance of wind farms. I would be very wary of treating it as it was. You’re only fooling yourself.
“There’s lies, damn lies and statistics” !!
I didn’t say ‘tend to favour’ was an unconditional acceptance of windfarms.
The main thrust of the post – which you seem to have missed or wilfully ignored – is that only 8% actually said they were opposed, and in fact the majority of these only ‘tended to oppose’.
My point is that this poll – and others before it – show clearly that the widespread and strident anti-wind media coverage is totally unnrepresentative of the true feelings of the copuntry, and is the product of a small number of highly active media-savvy turbophobes.
It is all depressingly reminiscent of the climate change ‘debate’. The very fact that you have posted on here to criticise the post while no-one has commented in support says something in itself. The antis are the vocal, aggressive ones, while the large majority either support wind or don’t give two hoots – but the majority’s voice is not heard, except in polls which are widely ignored and that soon sink from public view.
I am just attempting to provide a little balance.
And another poll out today, a YouGov survey of over 1,000 people, confirms the above findings.
The YouGov poll, commissioned by trade group Scottish Renewables, found that 39 per cent of respondents “strongly agreed” with the statement “I support the continuing development of wind power as part of a mix of renewables and conventional forms of electricity generation”, while a further 33 per cent “tended to agree”.
Hmmm…. So Alec Salmond has got it completely wrong aiming for 100% renewable. It’s obvious from the poll that people favour a mix (although there’s no indication what that mix might be) rather than 100% renewable which is pure fantasy anyway. It seems people are quite happy with conventional power generation.
Here are some other statements the Pollsters might ask respondents to agree( tend to agree) with….
1. I support an increase in my electricity bill of 70% by 2020 to cover the costs of subsidies to Wind Power generation.
2. I will continue to support the payment of these subsidies to wealthy land owners and Multinational companies offshore bank accounts as long as trhey request them.
3. I support the efforts of Fergus Ewing to overturn the decisions of local Councils and communities when they object to large wind farm developements near their homes and nominate him for a salary increase as an incentive to continue doing so.
4. I support the exploitation of shale gas as it is likely to cut the cost of fuel for generation of power by 50% without subsidies and will therefore reduce my electricity bills.
Spammer,
If you could produce any references or evidence whatsoever for your points 1, 2 and 3 people might take you seriously.
As for point 4 – I presume you are a climate change denier?
(Yawn)
These Omnibus reports get their name from being able to submit your requirement on Monday and a result is returned on Thursday. Ipsos who conducted your poll don’t detail how their panel of 1,000 “respondents” is made up, but, YouGov do and they also have produced a similar poll for Scottish Renewables. This is how YouGov describe their Omnibus service:
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It’s the panel filled with people of a “certain criteria” I don’t like. The temptation to fix panel and thus the result is overwhelming.
the You Gov description got chopped out. Here it is again:
Giving clients confidence upfront
Because our panel is pre-screened we can identify the number of people who meet certain criteria. This means you will know the likely number of respondents available before committing any budget to a project.
Faster turnaround
A pre-screened panel significantly speeds up the research process and makes quick turnaround projects possible. We don’t need to go out looking for respondents – we already have them on tap. This means we can significantly reduce the time and costs associated with free sourcing respondents.
In short, our panel is a powerful tool which we put at our clients disposal to ensure speed, robustness and cost effectiveness.
I can see your point, but do you think they choose different groups for a poll on energy than for a poll on, eg, opinions on the budget? I suspect these groups are one and the same and that the criteria are based more on economic grouping or simple willingness to take part. I have been suckered by a market research organisation into taking part in regular polls before because I would be ‘entered into a draw’, but I didn’t get the impression that they cared about my politics or fundamental beliefs.
Without more information this is just a baseless conspiracy theory really.
It appears a panel is selected or pre-screened? There is nothing to stop either of the two UK renewable orgs to conduct their study in England only? These companies are media companies ….
Yes, agree but it wouldn’t surprise me, nothing would.
Assume that far from being a “fix”, that both Ipsos and YouGov are scrupulous in the choosing of the 1,000 participants. That would mean a mathematically accurate and bulletproof selection of people from the entire populace and across the whole age range (and you can see how easy you can get into difficulties eg what age?). At least 66% of the country live either nowhere near a wind farm or have never seen one. How would they vote? Whereas you could be sure that a very large proportion of the country uses tomato ketchup and therefore asking their preference is bound to get an informed opinion, you can not say the same of these two “polls”.
references to questions…..
Question 1.
Report by Lord Turner of Climate Change Committee.
The report anticipates a large expansion in the funding of wind, nuclear, tidal and other low-carbon energy generation projects through domestic bills
Report by Prof Gordon Hughs of Edinburgh University.
Research by Liberum Capital Investment Bank
Article in FT Wed 14th Dec 2011 by Michael Kavanagh
Question 2.
Fact. More than 850million pounds a year goes to these groups by way of subsidies
Question 3.
Glen Fiddich wind farm(60 Turbines) on land owned by London Financier Chris Morran given the go ahead by Fergus Ewing against opposition by Local Council and Community.
Question 4.
This is the experience in America.
On what basis do you presume I’m a denier and what relevence does it have to the question?
Spammer,
I presume you are a denier because only a denier would promote unlimited shale gas exploitation.
It is relevant because if you do not believe in the reality of AGW then discussing renewables with you is a waste of time as we are arguing from wildy incompatible premises.
Friends of the Earth Scotland has today (Monday 23 April 2012) released the results of a YouGov poll showing that Scots overwhelmingly support the transition to renewable energy and want to see Scotland move away from the use of gas and coal to produce household electricity.
Releasing the poll results in the run up to Donald Trump’s appearance at the Scottish Parliamentary inquiry into Scotland’s renewables targets later this week, the organisation states that Donald Trump’s well-publicised anti-renewables stance is ‘completely out of step with Scottish public opinion’.
Stan Blackley, Chief Executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said:
“Scotland is uniquely placed to lead the transition to a renewables-based energy future and it is clear that this move has enormous public support. This poll shows that the carbon dinosaurs who want to build new thermal power stations, and ill-informed doom-mongers such as Donald Trump, are completely out of step with Scottish public opinion.”
The poll reveals that almost nine out of ten Scots (88 percent of those polled) support reducing Britain’s reliance on imported gas and coal for the production of household electricity, and instead want to see an increase in the amount of electricity produced from domestic renewable sources, such as wave and tidal, wind and solar.
When they were asked which three specific sources they would most like to see providing their household electricity in ten years time, the most popular choice amongst those polled was wave and tidal (chosen by 71% overall, with 32 percent of first choices), the second most popular choice was wind (chosen by 65% overall, with 18 percent of first choices) and the third most popular choice was solar (chosen by 57% overall, with 15 percent of first choices). Coal and gas received only 2 percent of first choices respectively.