Poll says Idahoans want incentives for alternative energy

January 31, 2007
by Anne Wallace Allen

Most people in Idaho want the state to use incentives to promote renewable and alternative energy, according to a survey released Tuesday by a statewide group.

The Energy Policy Institute, based at Boise State University and Idaho National Laboratory, last fall surveyed 513 people around Idaho about their attitudes on energy use, energy generation and alternative fuels.

The survey, which has an error rate of plus or minus 5.6 percent, found support for incentives to promote local production of ethanol and bio diesel using Idaho-grown crops; to encourage the purchase of energy-efficient vehicles or vehicles that run on alternative fuels; and to promote investment in non-traditional natural gas supply resources such as landfill and feedstock waste.

The questioners didn't describe any incentives to respondents, but such incentives usually include tax breaks, said John Freemuth, the interim director of the institute.

An interim legislative committee that met several times last year recently released a draft state energy plan. The Energy Policy Institute's survey, released at a Statehouse news conference Tuesday, was independent from that plan, but Freemuth said it was intended to shed light on the same issues for the benefit of lawmakers who will determine energy policy in the coming months and years. The state's draft energy plan has energy conservation as its first priority. Promoting the use of renewable resources is next. Its authors favor local control on where large power plants can be built.

Freemuth noted that 69 percent of survey respondents believed local and state officials should share responsibility for the placement of large power plants.

"I think the plan is cautious," Freemuth said of the state's draft. "It's an attempt to do the art of the possible, given the fiscally constrained, conservative Legislature that exists. ... Clearly the survey indicates that Idahoans are more ready to see more aggressive action on some of this than maybe the plan indicates.''

The institute examined several other areas of energy use, such as how far Idahoans commute to work. About half reported that they don't commute at all, or only travel up to 10 miles to get to work. Five percent reported traveling 40 to 50 miles to work.

Almost half of the survey respondents said their vehicle gets 21 to 30 miles per gallon. "The vehicles in our state could be more efficient," Freemuth said.

The survey also found that 67 percent of Idahoans think the state should help low-income households pay their energy bills.

Asked to name the single most important energy issue facing Idaho, respondents chose the availability of renewable energy, followed by the price of gas.

Seventy percent said they believed human activities were contributing to global warming; 24 percent said they did not, and 5 percent said they didn't know.

As Freemuth was discussing the survey Tuesday, Russ Hendricks was attending a Boise conference on renewable energy organized by an Olympia, Wash., nonprofit agency called Climate Solutions.

Investing in renewable energy will help Idaho farmers save money on fuel and diversify their crops, said Hendricks, a regional manager at the Idaho Farm Bureau who estimated 600 people had attended the conference.

Hendricks noted that without oil, natural gas, or coal deposits, Idaho must import much of its energy . Energy sources like manure, wind and biomass help make the state more independent, he said.

"As people get more information and become more informed about the benefits of the production and use of renewable energy, they overwhelmingly support it," he said.

The institute is part of the Center for Advanced Energy Studies, a partnership between BSU, the University of Idaho, Idaho State University, and the INL.

"Energy is back in the public's mind," Freemuth said. "Perhaps because it's been covered in the media, or their own experiences with high fuel prices, or the war, or what they're noticing about climate changes and their own behavior ... it probably makes the public more aware.''

Download the survey findings at:
http://ppa.boisestate.edu/ssrc/archive/2007-EPI-pressconf.pdf