Canadians willing to pay more for green power
TORONTO, Ontario, CA, 2004-12-08 Refocus Weekly
A national poll suggests that 87% of Canadian voters support green power as a source of electricity.
The sample of 700 randomly-selected adults was conducted in October by
Oraclepoll Research for Pollution Probe. It found that 12% of respondents were
prepared to pay Cdn$5 more a month for green power if it would improve air
quality, 18% would pay $2 to $5, 22% would pay $5 to $10, 9% would pay $10 to
$15 and 17% would pay a monthly premium of $15 to $20. Only 17% said they would
not pay a premium, and 5% had no opinion.
Three-quarters said it is very important for the federal and provincial
governments to work together to develop green power in Canada over the next 20
years, while wind, solar, small hydro and geothermal are the preferred
electricity supply source for 60%. Large hydro projects were preferred by 20%
and 15% like natural gas plants, while nuclear is preferred by 5% and coal-fired
power is the preferred option for 1% of Canadians.
“It’s time for Canada’s federal and provincial governments to develop
aggressive policies to promote the use of green power,” said Ken Ogilvie of
Pollution Probe. “We believe that green power has the potential to supply at
least 25% of Canada’s electricity by 2025 and 50% in the long term.”
Eight in ten said they would be more likely to support a political party that
backed an aggressive green power initiative, while one in ten would be less
likely. Although 87% support or strongly support the use of green power as a
source of electricity, 10% did not support or oppose, while 2% oppose or
strongly oppose.
The strongest opposition to green power came from voters in Manitoba and
Saskatchewan, with no opposition from Alberta respondents. Although minor,
opposition came from males, young people (18 to 34) and from high income
($75,000 family) voters.
When asked what they thought of when hearing the term ‘green power,’ 27% had
no idea, 16% said alternate energy or power sources, 11% said environmentalists
or ‘tree huggers,’ 9% said wind power, 6% said the Green Party, 1% said
solar energy and 0.3% said Communism.
Among the benefits of green power, improving air quality was cited by 91%, while
preventative health care, reducing emissions that cause climate change,
improving reliability and security of electrical power supply and providing
local jobs were cited by more than three-quarters.
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