Poll: Wind power, bio-fuel in, but nuclear mixed; Prices are key

The public broadly supports additional wind farms and bio-fuel, but the reaction to nuclear power is split, according to a Financial Times/Harris poll. One thing everyone can agree on: The public will resist renewable energy if there's a substantial increase in costs.

The poll, which queried U.S. adults and the five largest European countries, highlights the push and pull of alternative energy sources. The sample size covered 6,255 adults evenly split between the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Spain and Italy.

Among the key findings:

• Wind farms are popular as adults favor them strongly. In Spain, 90 percent of the public favored building more wind farms. In the U.S., that tally was 87 percent. France was 77 percent.
• The majority of folks favor subsidies for bio-fuels. In Italy, 77 percent favored bio-fuel subsidies followed by 76 percent in Spain and 60 percent in the U.S. The feeling towards subsidies, however, wasn't overwhelmingly strong.
• Nuclear power attitudes were mixed. In the U.S., France and U.K. opinion about building more nuclear plants was roughly split down the middle. Solid majorities were against nuclear power in Spain, Italy and Germany.

But the big item in the survey came down to pricing. The majority of people in all countries would pay 5 percent more for renewable energy as a maximum. In the U.S., 32 percent of the public would pay 5 percent more. In Spain, only 17 percent would pay more than 5 percent for alternative energy. Most want no price changes at all. Bottom line: Cost parity is key.

Indeed, the FT/Harris poll asked respondents whether they would pay $220 more a month---the amount estimated by the European Union to cut greenhouse emissions and use more renewable energy---strong majorities said no.

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com