IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v44y2012icp312-319.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Wind power or uranium mine: Appraisal of two energy-related environmental changes in a local context

Author

Listed:
  • Pedersen, Eja
  • Johansson, Maria

Abstract

This study explores factors associated with the individual's appraisal of anticipated environmental changes caused by energy production facilities. The study took place in a Swedish village where exploratory drilling, that could eventually lead to a uranium mine, was being conducted at the same time as a wind farm was approved. Results from the survey, which included the total population, were interpreted in the light of cognitive stress theory. Most residents thought that the wind farm would have a positive impact on the village but that the uranium drilling would have a negative impact; these opinions were closely related to attitudes towards wind and nuclear power. Perceiving the wind farm as positive was further predicted by young age, high education, being an ordinary rather than a committed recycler and having attended a meeting about the wind farm. A negative view of uranium drilling was predicted by the individual valuing closeness to nature, being a recycler, and having attended the uranium meeting. Psychological factors such as concerns for the environment (manifested as pro-environmental behaviour), valuing closeness to nature, and involvement impinge on the appraisal process and should be considered when new developments are presented.

Suggested Citation

  • Pedersen, Eja & Johansson, Maria, 2012. "Wind power or uranium mine: Appraisal of two energy-related environmental changes in a local context," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 312-319.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:44:y:2012:i:c:p:312-319
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2012.01.058
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421512000845
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2012.01.058?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. van der Horst, Dan, 2007. "NIMBY or not? Exploring the relevance of location and the politics of voiced opinions in renewable energy siting controversies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 2705-2714, May.
    2. Wolsink, Maarten, 2007. "Wind power implementation: The nature of public attitudes: Equity and fairness instead of 'backyard motives'," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 11(6), pages 1188-1207, August.
    3. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    4. Aitken, Mhairi, 2010. "Why we still don't understand the social aspects of wind power: A critique of key assumptions within the literature," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 1834-1841, April.
    5. Marco Lalli & Christina Thomas, 1989. "Public Opinion and Decision Making in the Community. Evaluation of Residents' Attitudes Towards Town Planning Measures," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 26(4), pages 435-447, August.
    6. Goddard, W.B. & Goddard, C.B., 1993. "A comparative study of the total environmental costs associated with electrical generation systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 113-120.
    7. Ek, Kristina, 2005. "Public and private attitudes towards "green" electricity: the case of Swedish wind power," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(13), pages 1677-1689, September.
    8. Graham, Jessica B. & Stephenson, Janet R. & Smith, Inga J., 2009. "Public perceptions of wind energy developments: Case studies from New Zealand," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 3348-3357, September.
    9. Geraint Ellis & John Barry & Clive Robinson, 2007. "Many ways to say 'no', different ways to say 'yes': Applying Q-Methodology to understand public acceptance of wind farm proposals," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(4), pages 517-551.
    10. van der Pligt, Joop & Richard Eiser, J. & Spears, Russell, 1984. "Public attitudes to nuclear energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 302-305, September.
    11. McLaren Loring, Joyce, 2007. "Wind energy planning in England, Wales and Denmark: Factors influencing project success," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 2648-2660, April.
    12. Zoellner, Jan & Schweizer-Ries, Petra & Wemheuer, Christin, 2008. "Public acceptance of renewable energies: Results from case studies in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 4136-4141, November.
    13. Walker, Gordon & Devine-Wright, Patrick & Hunter, Sue & High, Helen & Evans, Bob, 2010. "Trust and community: Exploring the meanings, contexts and dynamics of community renewable energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 2655-2663, June.
    14. Jones, Christopher R. & Eiser, J. Richard, 2009. "Identifying predictors of attitudes towards local onshore wind development with reference to an English case study," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 4604-4614, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Keramitsoglou, Kiriaki M., 2016. "Exploring adolescents’ knowledge, perceptions and attitudes towards Renewable Energy Sources: A colour choice approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1159-1169.
    2. Ek, Kristina & Persson, Lars & Johansson, Maria & Waldo, Åsa, 2013. "Location of Swedish wind power—Random or not? A quantitative analysis of differences in installed wind power capacity across Swedish municipalities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 135-141.
    3. Lai, Po-Hsin & Lyons, Kevin D. & Gudergan, Siegfried P. & Grimstad, Sidsel, 2017. "Understanding the psychological impact of unconventional gas developments in affected communities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 492-501.
    4. Hartmann, Patrick & Apaolaza, Vanessa & D'Souza, Clare & Echebarria, Carmen & Barrutia, Jose M., 2013. "Nuclear power threats, public opposition and green electricity adoption: Effects of threat belief appraisal and fear arousal," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1366-1376.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Langer, Katharina & Decker, Thomas & Roosen, Jutta & Menrad, Klaus, 2016. "A qualitative analysis to understand the acceptance of wind energy in Bavaria," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 248-259.
    2. Zerrahn, Alexander, 2017. "Wind Power and Externalities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 245-260.
    3. Kontogianni, A. & Tourkolias, Ch. & Skourtos, M. & Damigos, D., 2014. "Planning globally, protesting locally: Patterns in community perceptions towards the installation of wind farms," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 170-177.
    4. Windemer, Rebecca, 2023. "Acceptance should not be assumed. How the dynamics of social acceptance changes over time, impacting onshore wind repowering," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    5. Bidwell, David, 2013. "The role of values in public beliefs and attitudes towards commercial wind energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 189-199.
    6. Landeta-Manzano, Beñat & Arana-Landín, Germán & Calvo, Pilar M. & Heras-Saizarbitoria, Iñaki, 2018. "Wind energy and local communities: A manufacturer’s efforts to gain acceptance," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 314-324.
    7. Jones, Christopher R. & Richard Eiser, J., 2010. "Understanding 'local' opposition to wind development in the UK: How big is a backyard?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 3106-3117, June.
    8. Jones, Christopher R. & Eiser, J. Richard, 2009. "Identifying predictors of attitudes towards local onshore wind development with reference to an English case study," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 4604-4614, November.
    9. Devine-Wright, Patrick, 2011. "Enhancing local distinctiveness fosters public acceptance of tidal energy: A UK case study," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 83-93, January.
    10. Waldo, Åsa, 2012. "Offshore wind power in Sweden—A qualitative analysis of attitudes with particular focus on opponents," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 692-702.
    11. Pepermans, Yves & Loots, Ilse, 2013. "Wind farm struggles in Flanders fields: A sociological perspective," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 321-328.
    12. Soland, Martin & Steimer, Nora & Walter, Götz, 2013. "Local acceptance of existing biogas plants in Switzerland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 802-810.
    13. Paul Lehmann & Felix Creutzig & Melf-Hinrich Ehlers & Nele Friedrichsen & Clemens Heuson & Lion Hirth & Robert Pietzcker, 2012. "Carbon Lock-Out: Advancing Renewable Energy Policy in Europe," Energies, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-32, February.
    14. Hübner, Gundula & Leschinger, Valentin & Müller, Florian J.Y. & Pohl, Johannes, 2023. "Broadening the social acceptance of wind energy – An Integrated Acceptance Model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    15. Groth, Theresa M. & Vogt, Christine, 2014. "Residents' perceptions of wind turbines: An analysis of two townships in Michigan," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 251-260.
    16. Schumacher, K. & Krones, F. & McKenna, R. & Schultmann, F., 2019. "Public acceptance of renewable energies and energy autonomy: A comparative study in the French, German and Swiss Upper Rhine region," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 315-332.
    17. Grashof, Katherina, 2019. "Are auctions likely to deter community wind projects? And would this be problematic?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 20-32.
    18. Jones, Christopher R. & Orr, Barry J. & Eiser, J. Richard, 2011. "When is enough, enough? Identifying predictors of capacity estimates for onshore wind-power development in a region of the UK," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(8), pages 4563-4577, August.
    19. Fast, Stewart & Mabee, Warren, 2015. "Place-making and trust-building: The influence of policy on host community responses to wind farms," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 27-37.
    20. Songsore, Emmanuel & Buzzelli, Michael, 2014. "Social responses to wind energy development in Ontario: The influence of health risk perceptions and associated concerns," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 285-296.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:44:y:2012:i:c:p:312-319. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.