Published: May 04, 2006 11:27 pm         

Survey shows majority of state voters favor building wind farms

CHARLESTON — The West Virginia Manufacturers Association published partial results of a survey Thursday indicating seven out of 10 voters in the state favor construction of a wind farm in their county, according to president Karen Price.

The survey was commissioned by WVMA in conjunction with representatives of the wind energy industry and was conducted by RMS Strategies of Charleston April 5-18. WVMA also paid for the survey.

Nearly 80 percent of respondents said they were concerned about the need for additional power sources for generating electricity in the next 20 years and almost nine out of 10 said they believed wind power is an environmentally safe source for producing electricity.

“I think it’s positive that people are concerned about the future of energy,” Price, who heads one of the state’s most powerful lobbying arms, said. “People see this as another alternative to supplying energy both residentially and commercially.”

An additional 100 surveys were taken in Tucker County where the state’s first and only wind farm has been operating for three years. The survey showed 81 percent of respondents supported the wind farm in that county.

In all, 27 questions were asked of 501 registered voters using a random dialing method. Only a small portion of the survey was published and Price refused to release the entire study.

“We will gauge and evaluate the rest of the study, but we won’t be releasing it now,” she said.

Mark Blankenship, vice president of RMS Strategies, said voters in Greenbrier County also approved of wind farms, although he did not give any specifics on data from the county.

“Greenbrier County residents included in the survey are largely consistent with the opinions of the statewide results,” Blank-enship said Thursday.

The survey did not include any questions on whether people would like to live in view of a wind farm.

Beech Ridge Energy project director Dave Groberg said this poll vindicates the message he has been sending about the proposed 124-turbine wind farm proposed for Greenbrier County.

“I feel a little vindicated with the results because they are consistent with what I have been saying all along,” Groberg said Thursday. “There is a lot of support for wind power and the vast majority of people are for it after they are built.”

Dave Burhman, media director for Mountain Communities for Responsible Energy, had a different opinion on the poll.

“Understand that 70 percent approval by the uniformed public dissolves quickly when the giant wind project arrives at your door,” he said. “Once people hear that wind turbines are to be their new neighbor, they begin to educate themselves on the pros and cons.”

The maximum margin of error for the statewide portion of the study was plus or minus 4.4 percent and plus or minus 9.8 percent for the Tucker County results.

— E-mail:

cgiggenbach@register-herald.com