Carter Wood points to some interesting findings in RBC Capital Market’s annual energy survey:
Americans’ NIMBY “Not In My Backyard” syndrome also appears to be waning. Only 16 per cent of Americans said that they would oppose the construction of any type of energy plant or facility in their hometown, down from 23 per cent in 2007. Seventy-one per cent of Americans said they would support an alternative-energy system in their hometown, including a wind or solar facility, up from 58 per cent last year; 34 per cent would support a clean coal technology plant (up from 27 per cent last year); 32 per cent would support a liquefied natural gas facility (up from 25 per cent last year); and 21 per cent would support a nuclear power plant (up from 17 per cent). Nevertheless, the survey found that although a majority of Americans attribute the rapid rise in gas prices to a lack of oil refining capacity in the U.S., eight out of 10 said they oppose the construction of an oil refinery in their hometown.
Carter makes the quite accurate point that these survey results should be taken with a grain of salt; people might not be as excited about a concrete proposal as they were about an abstract survey question. Nevertheless, they fact of the clear shift in answers suggests that something’s happening here. The basics of supply, demand and price are relatively simple. Have energy prices reached the point where voters want real action to increase supply?
