The Block Island Town Council asked me in August 2008 to conduct an opinion survey about proposed on shore and offshore wind turbine installations before the wind industry or government conducted their own surveys. The purpose of the survey was to give the town information that it could bring to the discussions about the proposed installations.
Mail surveys normally do not yield more than a 5 percent response. However, mail surveys about issues of importance to the public, such as wind power, have yielded other states a greater than 40 percent response rate, making it possible to end up with statistically significant opinions.
For the Block Island study, we polled 100 percent of the 1,484 registered voters, and received a 42.3 percent response rate. We also polled all of the nonregistered voters who owned 728 homes, and received a 58 percent response.
Town council members helped organize volunteers to open envelopes, separate surveys from cover letters in public forums to protect participant anonymity, and enter data into spreadsheets. Data validation and analysis was carried out by Stephen Kerr, a Brown University graduate student, under the supervision of Annie Gjelsvik of the Brown Community Health Department.
The results of the survey were announced at the Block Island Residents Association annual meeting on Aug. 15 at St. Andrews Parish Center. It showed that both Block Island residents and nonvoting homeowners support on-land and offshore wind turbine installation with lopsided majorities.
The support for a windmill installation at the town transfer station was 3-to-1 in favor among nonresident homeowners (65.9 to 21.4 percent) and 4-to-1 in favor among Block Island voters (71.9 to 15.6 percent). The survey did not address the opinion of the abutters to the proposed site.
Support for the proposed five to eight turbines 3 miles offshore was also 3-to-1 in favor (72 to 22.4 percent) among nonvoting homeowners, but it increased to 7-to-1 in favor among Block Island voters (83.9 to 11.2 percent).
Support for turbines beyond the 3-mile state border among nonvoting homeowners increased to 5-to-1 (76.2 to 14.9 percent) and beyond 12 miles increased to 10-to-1 (84.2 to 10.2 percent). Beyond 3 miles, support from voters increased to 10-to-1 (80.2 to 7.4 percent), and beyond 12 miles support increased even more to more than 20-to-1 (87.6 to 3.8 percent). There is already overwhelming support for the 100 turbines proposed beyond 12 miles, closer to shore.
Beyond asking about support or opposition for specific locations, the survey asked whether support or opposition would increase for the Block Island installation if it were part of 54,000 wind turbines installed from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras that according to a scientific study would provide 100 percent of the energy needs for all people living along the coastal states.
Significantly, 56.3 percent of the nonresident homeowners and 63.6 percent of the voters stated it would increase their support, while 6.3 percent of the nonvoters and 3.4 of the voters said it would increase their opposition. This latter group is filled with staunch opponents who form the core of those who said upfront that they oppose wind energy in general (5.9 and 3.2 percent).
Members of both groups expressed strong opinions in survey comments and after the meeting. A pro-wind member said the survey should have spelled out that wind electricity is much less expensive than solar photovoltaic electricity, which can cost 200 percent or more than wind electricity. He thought it is important for people taking the survey to know that wind electricity is less expensive than oil and natural gas electricity in many markets, according to a New York Times article.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, anti-wind individuals, who insisted that the installation of wind turbines would “destroy the planet,” said if the survey had asked to choose directly between locating wind turbines at 12 miles and 3 miles, more people would have chosen 12 miles as a preferred location.
Eventually we will cross-tabulate all the questions in the survey that address reasons that people on Block Island support or oppose wind turbine installation on or near Block Island, and we will post all contributed comments, providing a qualitative understanding in addition to numbers. •
Lefteris Pavlides is a professor of architecture at Roger Williams University’s School of Art, Architecture and Historic Preservation.
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