Graduate School of Law, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
Faculty of Informatics, Kansai University, Osaka, Japan.
PLoS One. 2023 Apr 26;18(4):e0284208. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0284208. eCollection 2023.
The proliferation of country and state-level net zero-emission commitments, rising energy costs, and the quest for energy security in the wake of the Ukraine crisis have renewed the debate about the future of energy sources. As opposed to elite discourse, the energy policy preferences of the public remain less explored. While many public opinion surveys report preferences for a specific type of clean energy, there is less work on understanding choices among different types. We explore whether support for nuclear over wind energy at the state level depends on how people assess the impact of these energy sources on health, local jobs, landscape disruption, and the stability of the electricity supply. Importantly, we seek to understand where people physically reside (and their experience of existing energy possibilities) might influence their energy policy preferences. We estimate multiple regression models with OLS with our original survey data of a representative sample of Washington residents (n = 844). We find that the physical proximity to existing energy facilities does not influence support for nuclear over wind energy. However, this support is shaped by the importance respondents attach to health (-), jobs (-), landscapes (+), and supply stability (+) dimensions of energy source. Moreover, the physical proximity to existing energy facilities moderates the importance respondents attach to these dimensions.
国家和州级净零排放承诺的激增、能源成本的上涨，以及乌克兰危机后对能源安全的追求，重新引发了关于能源未来的辩论。与精英话语不同，公众的能源政策偏好仍较少被探索。虽然许多民意调查报告都报告了对某种清洁能源的偏好，但对不同类型能源之间的选择的研究较少。我们探讨了在州一级，人们对核能相对于风能的支持是否取决于他们如何评估这些能源对健康、当地就业、景观破坏和电力供应稳定性的影响。重要的是，我们试图了解人们的实际居住地点（以及他们对现有能源可能性的体验）是否会影响他们的能源政策偏好。我们使用华盛顿居民的代表性样本的原始调查数据（n = 844），估计了多元回归模型和 OLS。我们发现，与现有能源设施的物理接近程度不会影响对核能相对于风能的支持。然而，这种支持受到受访者对能源来源的健康（-）、就业（-）、景观（+）和供应稳定性（+）维度的重视程度的影响。此外，与现有能源设施的物理接近程度会调节受访者对这些维度的重视程度。
