According to a Monmouth University survey released yesterday, support for wind farms and coastal drilling continues to increase in the commonwealth, although there is some split between those in Accomack and Northampton counties and those in Hampton Roads.
The “Life on the Mid-Atlantic Coast 2009” survey said:
“A large majority of coastal residents support the placement of electricity-generating wind farms off their local coasts, even if the windmills would be visible from the shoreline. On the other hand, opinion is divided over drilling for oil or gas in the Atlantic Ocean. However, support for all these ocean energy resource options has increased in the past two years.”
76% of those on the Eastern Shore support visible wind farms, while 53% support it in Virginia Beach. Those numbers rise to 84% and 82% respectively for “non-visible” turbines.
The survey also found that 42% of Virginians on the coast are in favor of drilling, however that is split between those on the Eastern Shore supporting it at 46% and those at the beach supporting at 37%
The overall survey numbers say 46% support coastal drilling and that only 37% oppose it.
Maryland, Deleware and New Jersey have the highest support for oil and natural gas at 65%, 52% and 51%, respectively, which should give Virginians pause. If these other states say “yes” and Virginia says “no”, thousands of jobs and billions of dollars could be lost to these other states as they develop and we remain behind.
Virginia is at a crossroads with it’s abundance of wind, coal, uranium, bio-fuels, and, potentially, oil and natural gas. We can either move forward, becoming the energy capital of the east coast, if not the United States. Or, we can continue to be a net importer of energy, and continue to allow our economy to lag.
Interesting bit of data.
