Opposition To Nimby Essay

Explaining NIMBY Opposition to Wind Power
Eric R. A. N. Smith
Department of Political Science
University of California, Santa Barbara [e-mail] Holly Klick
Department of Political Science
University of California, Santa Barbara
[e-mail]

Abstract
Public opinion polls show that the American public strongly supports the development of wind power as an alternative to fossil fuels. Yet when specific wind farm proposals are made, they often meet local opposition, which is usually described as Nimby ("not-in-mybackyard") opposition.
We examine public toward wind power in depth using an internet survey. Instead of only asking about support for wind power, we investigate how people respond to advantages
A group of Massachusetts residents formed the Alliance to Protect Nantucket
Sound—a nonprofit group dedicated to preserving the landscape off Cape Cod. Members and locals alike claimed that the project would ruin the pristine landscape and was environmentally unsound. Most importantly, these groups opposed the plan because it placed the public’s ocean in the hands of private developers (Ebbert 2006; Kempton et al.
2005, 128). Political leaders—including Governor Mitt Romney (R-Mass), Senator
Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), and Robert F. Kennedy, a senior attorney for the National
Resources Defense Council—joined forces and formed an unlikely coalition opposing the project (Daley 2006; Kennedy 2005; Vennochi 2004). Senator Kennedy even tried to insert language into a Coast Guard funding bill which would have allowed then Governor
Romney ultimate veto power over the project (Daley, 2006)
This opposition to Cape Wind is not an isolated case. On Long Island, a citizen group known as the Jones Beach Ad Hoc Committee is committed to preventing forty wind turbines from entering Jones Beach. Land wind farms have also been subject to fierce, local opposition (Bosley and Bosley 1988; Pasqualetti 2001; Podger 2007;
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