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Renewable Energy Policy and Public Opinion

Selena Kaneko

KYOTO UNIVERSITY

Abstract

Renewable energy is attracting more and more global

attention both as new domestic energy and as a way to reduce

greenhouse gas emissions. Many governments are promoting

the various forms of renewable energy but the total amount of

renewable energy is still very low in most countries. Difficulties

arise as the energy supply directly affects the daily life of

everybody, making it important to well consider what people

think about energy policies and strategies. The public should

have influence over the choice of energy sources. This is both

inevitable, and democratically desirable.t What is public

opinion about renewable energy and how should governments

go about educating people about renewable energy?

INTRODUCTION

This research paper considers what kind of influence have public acceptance for the

promotion of renewable energy, such as solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass and how

should public opinion be considered in policy making. Alternative forms of energy generation

are expected to make a significant contribution to solving the problem that is present by the

threat of anthropogenic climate change. At the recent international conference about climate

change held in Paris, COP21, the investment toward renewable energy was one of the issues

discussed. In order to deal with climate change, innovation and installation of renewable

energy is needed; this requires cooperation of government and the private sector. Moreover,

for some countries where natural fossil resources are not plentiful, like Japan, renewable

energy is important to increase the energy self-sufficiency rate. Many countries are

implementing policies that encourage investment toward and innovation of renewable energy.

To install more and more renewable energy, consent by the public is needed both nationally

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and locally. However, it is very difficult to know what public are thinking just by looking at

the polls because, as James S. Fishkin points out, the public may have little interest in and

knowledge about renewable energy1. Therefore the pursued questions for this research are

what public think about renewable energy and whether they are interested in renewable

energy policies. As showed in the following research even though in the overall polls the

acceptance and expectation for renewable energy is relatively high in both Japan and the U.S.,

in some places the construction of the power stations, for example wind turbines, faces

opposition by the local people.

In the following paper, first describe the situation of renewable energy in the U.S.

and Japan, and then the trend of public opinion in both countries. After that, give some points

concerning what government could do to improve the public acceptance of renewable energy.

THE SITUATION OF RENEWABLE ENERGY IN THE U.S. AND JAPAN

The political systems of the U.S. and Japan are different in many ways but the ratio

of renewable energy in the supply of electricity is somewhat similar (Figure1). Both countries

have a relatively low ratio of renewable energy compared to other countries like Germany

and Denmark. This section briefly overviews the history of policies and position of renewable

energy in the U.S. and Japan, the current situation and the goals of each government.

1 Fishkin, James S. When the People Speak; Deliberative Democracy and Public Consultation. Oxford

University Press, 2009. 2 Agency for Natural Resources and Energy. "Anual Report on Energy." Anual Report on Energy (Agency for

Natural Resorces and Energy of Japan), 2015. 3 U.S. Energy Information Administration. Renewable Energy Explained. 3 27, 2015.

http://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=renewable_home (accessed 12 13, 2015).

Figure 1, Primary Energy Production by major sources 2014

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Figure 3 Renewable Energy in Japan

In both the U.S. and Japan a noticeable engagement in renewable energy by the

central administration started after the oil crises of the 1970s. This is obvious as in the

congressional records of the both countries the words “renewable energy” or “new energy”

appears frequently after 19734. The oil crises stimulated a sense of the danger in excessive

dependence on foreign oil for the energy supply. Japan had promoted technical investment for

4 The Library of Congress. The Libraby of Congress. n.d. https://www.loc.gov/ (accessed 04 11, 2016).

National Diet Library. Full-text Database System for the Minutes of the Diets. n.d. http://kokkai.ndl.go.jp/

(accessed 04 11, 2016).

0

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1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020

RenewableEnergy10000kw

Figure 2 Renewable Energy Production by Primary Energy Source in the U.S.

1949-2011

U.S Energy Information Administration

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1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Production TotalRenewable EnergyTrillion Btu

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renewable energy, especially for solar energy, along with nuclear power as the alternative to

fossil fuel and called “new energy”5. In the early stage of renewable energy policy, the

Japanese government mainly invested in technical research of renewable energy. This

tendency that Japanese government mainly invested in the technical research and not so much

to the application and operation continued until the end of the 20th

Century. In 2003, Japan

started the so-called Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS). According to this policy Japanese

electric companies were mandated to supply a certain amount of electricity produced by

renewable energy. The government defined the amount and what counts as renewable energy.

However, as the amount that the government requested was much too low that this policy did

not work very well and did not lead to the installation of a significant amount of renewable

energy. At the same time the Japanese government abolished the subsidies to the solar

industry and Japan lost its leading role in the industry. Japanese renewable energy policy

stagnated until 2009, when the debate about the implementation of the Feed-in Tariff (FIT)

began. FIT became law in 2012 pushing the amount of renewable energy up in Japan. In 2011

the Great East Japan Earthquake happened and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant

disaster greatly affected the discussion over renewable energy policy. Under the Basic Act on

Energy Policy, the Japanese government is revising the Basic Energy Plan at least every three

years. In the 2014 version of the plan6 the Japanese government declared the promotion of

renewable energy a priority and in the energy mix plan which was made according to the

Basic Energy Plan of 2014 the Japanese government is aiming to have 22-24 percent of

renewable energy by 2030. Although this includes 8.8-9.2 percent of hydroelectricity, Japan

will have to achieve a large increase in the percentage of other renewable energy from 3.2

percent to over 10 percent.

In the U.S., the history of federal renewable energy policy started during the Carter

administration7. In response to the oil crises, President Jimmy Carter submitted the National

Energy Plan to Congress, and Congress passed five pieces of legislation, collectively known

as the National Energy Act. In those plans and measures, investment in and promotion toward

renewable energy are mentioned. However, the introduction of renewable energy in the U.S.

5 Kobayashi, Shinichi. "Renewable energy policy (再生可能エネルギーの政策史)." In The various aspects

concerning renewable energy: Investigation project investigation report about science and technology, by

National Diet Library investigation and legislative bank relations and supervision department, 5-46. National

Diet Library, 2014. 6 Agency for Natural Resources and Energy "Basic Energy Plan エネルギー基本計画." Ministry of Economy,

Trade and Industry, 4 2014. 7 Kobayashi, Kenichi. "The Formation of Contemporary Energy Policy in the U.S. : President Carter's Energy

Policy : Note." The Journal of Tokyo Keisai University : Economics 285 (2015): 269-288.

5

has been relatively slow. In contrast to the slow and reluctant engagement with renewable

energy policy on the federal level, many states had previously implemented various both rule

and regulation type and incentive type of policies8. Rule and regulation type of policies are

measures like the Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) and the Mandatory Green Power

Option (MGPO) and incentive type of policies are like Feed-in tariff (FIT) and other

subsidies. Starting with the 1990s, individual states had taken leading roles in promoting

renewable energy9. The willingness of the federal government to engage in promotion of

renewable energy was relatively weak until the Obama administration. President Obama

promoted investment in renewable energy calling it a “Green New Deal”. This policy was

conceived positively due to high price of oil around 200810

.

Figure 4 Refiner Acquisition Cost of Crude Oil 1974-2016

U.S Energy Information Administration

President Obama had appealed the importance of renewable energy from the

perspective of national security and climate change. On August 3, 2015, President Obama and

8 Ansolabehere, Stephen, and David M. Konisky. Cheap and Clean, How Americans Think about Energy in the

Age of Global Warming. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2014 9 Shrimali, Gireesh, and Joshua Kniefel. "Are government policies effective in promoting deployment of

renewable electricity resources?" Energy Policy (Elsevier) 39 (2011): 4726-4741 10 (U.S. Energy Information Administration 2015)

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the EPA announced the Clean Power Plan. The Clean Power Plan is an overall plan for

reducing carbon dioxide emission to deal with climate change in the energy sector of the

economy. Development of the renewable energy is one aspect for dealing with man-made

climate change and, in the plan the U.S is going to obtain 21 percent of electric energy from

renewable energy sources by 203011

.

Both the U.S. and Japanese governments are planning to expand the capacity of

renewable energy.

PUBLIC OPINION IN THE U.S. AND JAPAN

Evaluating public opinion is complex as it has various variables. Most people do not

have enough information to have an opinion about renewable energy. Some people are

willing to increase renewable energy but do not want to pay the higher electricity prices. This

section points out two things. One is the gap between the general public opinion about the

renewable energy and the opinion of local people where the renewable energy plants are

planned to be constructed. The other is that most of the public have little interest in where the

energy came from as long as they do not face significant problems in their daily life.

Generally speaking, the public acceptance and expectation toward renewable

energy are high in both the U.S. and Japan. Stephen Ansolabehere and David M. Konisky

argue in their book Cheap and Clean, that what the American public want for their energy is

that it be cheap and clean, just as the book title says. The historical analysis of Gallup poll

about energy shows that the American public is very much in favor of clean energy compared

to other energy like coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy (Figure 2). In the survey data

obtained by the Institute of Applied Energy of Japan when people were asked if they think

whether, renewable energy, if it is strongly encouraged could be one of the main energy

suppliers in Japan after 20 years, around 60-80% of the people say “yes” (Figure 3).

Contrasting with the high public expectation and acceptance in general, when one

looks closely at actual cases, some renewable energy projects face local opposition. As

11 United States Environmental Protection Agency. "FACT SHEET: Clean Power Plan - Clean Energy Now and

in the Future." United States Environmental Protection Agency. 8 13, 2015.

http://www.epa.gov/cleanpowerplan/fact-sheet-clean-power-plan-clean-energy-now-and-future (accessed 1 15,

2016)

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renewable energy is less energy intensive than conventional energy like oil and gas, it

requires more space to implement. There are various reasons for opposition depending on

what kind of renewable energy facility is to be built (see Table 2). The common reasons for

local opposition are the disturbance of landscape, health damage, environmental risk and lack

of substantial explanation by the business operator. In the case of Higashi-izu in Japan, local

residents are complaining about the operation of mega wind turbines as they destruct

landscape, causes sleeping difficulty and moreover that wind turbines create little profit for

them12

.

Looking at the Figure 3, the number of people who say “yes” to this survey has

declined after the Fukushima disaster of 2011. This result may be a consequence of increased

public interest in energy problems. After the Fukushima disaster the people in the Tokyo

metropolitan area experienced rolling electric blackout, which was implemented to deal with

electricity shortage of TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company). This firsthand experience

may have lead people to think and learn about where the energy they consume comes from

and how the energy is produced. Therefore in the survey after 2011 many people may have

answered with a more critical opinion. After 2011 people who said that they do not know

increased compared to the years before 2011. This may be also the result of the fact that

people thought about the energy more seriously than before and realized actually that they do

not know about renewable energy that much.

Figure 5 Gallup Poll about Energy13

Do you think that as a country, the United States should put more emphasis, less emphasis, or about

the same emphasis as it does now on producing domestic energy from each of the following

sources—[RANDOM ORDER]?

More emphasis

(%)

Less emphasis

(%)

Same emphasis

(%)

No opinion (%)

COAL

2015 Mar 5-8 28 43 27 2

2013 Mar 7-10 31 41 25 3

OIL

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Think about Wind Turbine Problem 風車問題を考える住民の会. About the Problem of Wind Energy and

Wind Turbine Construction in Higashi-izu 東伊豆町風力発電・風車建設問題について. n.d.

http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~yunami/ (accessed 12 13, 2015) 13

Gallup. Energy: Gallup Historical Trend. n.d. http://www.gallup.com/poll/2167/energy.aspx (accessed 1 9,

2016).

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2015 Mar 5-8 41 30 27 1

2013 Mar 7-10 46 32 21 1

NATURAL GAS

2015 Mar 5-8 55 12 32 2

2013 Mar 7-10 65 0 24 2

WIND

2015 Mar 5-8 70 14 14 1

2013 Mar 7-10 71 12 16 1

SOLAE POWER

2015 Mar 5-8 79 9 12 1

2013 Mar 7-10 76 10 12 2

NUCLEAR

POWER

2015 Mar 5-8 33 35 28 4

2013 Mar 7-10 37 32 28 3

GALLUP

Figure 6 Poll of the public opinion about energy14

Question: Assuming that it is encouraged strongly, renewable energy (such as solar, wind and

geothermal energy) could be one of the main energy supplies in Japan after 20 years. (respondents:

people who live within 30 km of the Tokyo metropolitan area, N=500)

14

Institute of Applied Energy. "Poll of the public opinion about energy." 2003－2013.

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Table 115

reasons for opposition

in general poor explanation

wind noise, landscape, bird strike

solar land use

geothermal environmental destruction, earth quakes

biomass land should be used for food production

For smoother and more practical expansion of renewable energy, what is government

required to do? There are various perspectives from which to think about this question.

Focusing on public acceptance, I propose, that there are three important points, which may be

summed up as participation, choice, and planning.

The first point is local participation. Many places where a substantial amount of

wind energy capacity could be successfully built seem to have high local acceptance and

15

Maruyama, Yasushi. Socialization of Renewable Energy. Yuhikaku, 2014.

22.6

21.6

37

27

45.2

32.2

33

27.6

32

34.6

36.3

32.4

38.2

31

42

38

40.8

40.8

29.6

26.8

18

22.8

17

17.8

20

24.4

19.2

8

8.6

8

9.2

4.6

6

7.4

5

6.2

5.2

6.4

4.6

2.8

2.2

2

1.6

2.2

1.8

0 20 40 60 80 100

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

Agree Somewhat agree Don't know Somewhat disagree Disagree

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support. Ogata points out the connection between positive impression and participation in the

planning process16

. In his paper he examined the difference of the relation between two

different districts which are located next to a same windfarm and, the business operator of the

windfarm. He found out that in a district that had better communication with the business

operator few people claimed noise nuisance by the wind farm was unbearable but in the other

district with poor communication, local residents complained to the business operator that

they were suffering from the noise of the wind turbines. In the case of Hgashi-Izu City, the

opposing group does not seem to have strong dislike toward the city owned wind turbines but

strongly opposed the big wind turbines which were built by a private company.

The second important point is choice and availability of information. It is important

that the pubic have a fair amount of information to choose what kind of energy they want.

Most people do not think about energy seriously as long as they are not in trouble.

Governments or public services need to create intentional opportunities that people think

about renewable energy. For the open discussion it is important to appeal from many kinds of

media such as the Internet and TV, or in the school and senior education.

The last point is the strategy and plan of business operators. To choose places where

people have a rather positive impression of the renewable energy facilities is one possible

strategy according to Ogata17

. Places like former industrial sites that in the past have suffered

from the air pollution are often favorably inclined towards wind turbines and solar panels.

However, because suitable and efficient places for renewable energy depend on natural

conditions it may happen that the best locations are in areas where the people are most likely

to be opposed to building power stations. Therefore it is important for the business operator

to learn how to ease the opposition and find a solution that is acceptable to everyone.

CONCLUSION

Renewable energy is going to take an important role in the energy supply. The

governments are aiming to cover more energy by renewable energy than the current level. By

2030, both Japanese and U.S. governments are planning to compose about 20 percent of the

16

Ogata, Seiichi. "A study on the Social Factors of Wind Noise Problem: Case of the Wind Power Plants in the

M City." Papers on Environmental Information Science 29 (2015): 235-240. 17 ibid

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energy by the renewable energy. National Security and climate change are the reasons why

the renewable should be promoted.

In the process of promotion it is very important that citizens are presented with

options and alternatives from which they can choose from a position of solid knowledge and

be conscious what kind of energy they are using. More and more people are going to be

affected and involved in the renewable energy programs and facilities.

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12

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