U.S., Europe back wind farms but split on nuclear power

Most Americans and Europeans favor an expansion of renewable energy, particularly wind farms, if they don't have to pay much more but oppose it if the result is a significant increase in energy costs, a new Financial Times/Harris poll finds.

The public is much more evenly split on whether to build more nuclear power plants, except in Germany and Spain where substantial majorities oppose it, according to the the poll released Wednesday of 6,255 adults in the United States, France, Germany, Great Britain, Spain and Italy. The sample was weighted to reflect the composition of the population in each country.

The main findings of the poll, taken between Sept. 15 and 21, 2010, include:

• Big majorities of the public in all six countries favor the building of more wind farms in their countries, varying from 90% in Spain and 87% in the U.S. to 77% in France. And large numbers of them favor it "strongly."
• Majorities in all six countries, from 77% in Italy and 76% in Spain to 60% in the U.S. favor governments giving financial subsidies for the use of bio-fuels. However, only between 13% in Britain and 34% in Spain favor this "strongly."
• Opinions on building more nuclear power plants are more mixed and vary by country. The public is more or less equally divided in the U.S., Britain and France but clear majorities are opposed in Italy (60%), Spain (63%) and even more strongly in Germany (77%).
• When those who pay energy bills were asked how much more they would be willing to pay for renewable energy, most people in all countries said either no more or only 5% more. Those willing to pay more than 5% varied from 32% in the U.S. and 31% in Italy to only 17% in Spain and 20% in France.
• When asked if they would be willing to pay $220 more each month-the amount estimated by the European Union as needed to cut greenhouse emissions and use more renewable energy-large majorities in all the countries except Italy said they would not pay-from 77% in France and 76% in Britain to 65% in Germany who said so.