Landowner attitudes toward natural gas and wind farm development in northern Pennsylvania

Abstract

The US has undergone a recent boom in the development of onshore wind farm and natural gas energy projects and contentious debates over the construction of these projects are common in communities across the US. A survey of landowners in a region of Northern Pennsylvania (N=1028) undergoing simultaneous development of both wind and natural gas development shows that landowners are generally much more polarized and negative towards gas development than wind farm development, and that attitudes toward natural gas development is highly dependent on environmental attitudes and industry leasing, development, or employment experience. Landowner proximity to the development explains a small amount of the variation in attitudes towards wind energy. Recommendations for energy policy and future research are discussed.

Introduction

Driven by technological innovations and high energy prices, the US has undergone a recent boom in the development of onshore wind farm and natural gas energy projects. According to federal databases, 20,410 industrial-sized wind turbines and 190,679 conventional and unconventional natural gas wells were constructed onshore between 2000 and the end of 2009 (Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), 2011, United States Energy Information Administration (USEIA), 2011). Despite this growth, gaining acceptance of these energy projects from local residents is often difficult. In the US, local municipalities control planning and siting of wind energy in many areas, while the ability of local authorities to approve or deny natural gas development has been increased by court decisions in recent years (Barnes and Pardo, 2012, Kenneally and Mathes, 2010). Many communities in New York and Pennsylvania, for example, are now enacting bans on gas and/or wind developments, and contentious debates over the construction of these projects are common in communities across the US. Wind and gas industry proponents often cite local opposition as among the largest impediments to development, and a recent study found that over 45% of proposed wind projects in the US have been blocked at the local level (Pociask and Fuhr, 2011).

Existing research on resident perceptions of energy development and other land use changes has tended to characterize local attitudes as a phenomenon of NIMBY (Not-In-My-Back-Yard), whereby residents who would otherwise support such projects tend to oppose them when they are sited in close proximity (Schively, 2007). More recently, public debate in the US around energy development has largely characterized landowners who have the potential to receive direct benefit (in the form of lease payments and royalties for energy production) as vehement supporters of energy development and those who will not receive such benefits (because they do not own land that is suitable for energy development) as chief opponents of the activity (Jacquet and Stedman, 2011).

Despite the boom in development and the controversy it has produced, relatively little empirical research has focused on resident attitudes towards wind and gas development. Further, effects of landowner compensation or resident proximity (despite the NIMBY assumptions articulated above) remain largely untested.

Natural gas development has been buoyed by the emergence of “unconventional” gas formations that rely on advanced horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”) technologies. Unconventional gas resources already account for 50% of US natural gas production (IEA, 2012) and the world-wide potential for the growth of unconventional gas development is very favorable (Paltsev et al., 2011), with terms like “paradigm shift” and “game changer” used to describe its potential (Newell, 2010). Wind energy development in the US has recently ebbed with the economy, however the US remains one of the world's largest installers of onshore wind capacity, and onshore wind farm construction rates would have to more than double if the US is to meet policy initiatives such as the 20% Wind Power by 2030 proposal (USDOE, 2008; NRC, 2009).

Furthermore, future efforts to combat climate change caused by green house gas emissions will likely hasten both types of energy development as they are often depicted as medium- to long-term solutions to this problem: wind typically is described as a source of carbon-free “green energy” (Warren et al., 2005), while natural gas is often referred to as a reduced-carbon “transition-fuel” (Hultman et al., 2011, Paltsev et al., 2011) although the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from unconventional natural gas development is increasingly contested (Stephenson et al., 2012).

Despite these purported global environmental benefits, both wind and natural gas projects are often opposed on environmental concerns at the local level (Groothuis et al., 2008, Warren et al., 2005). The natural gas and wind industries share a large number of land use and developmental characteristics, as both appear in largely rural areas as dispersed arrays of several-acre development sites connected by transmission lines and access roads, both energy sources are seen as contributing to the larger phenomenon of “energy sprawl” (Johnson, 2011, McDonald et al., 2009). Within both industries, the development sites are typically leased from a multitude of private landowners and the landowners are additionally paid a royalty for energy that is produced. Both energy sources exhibit a short but industrially intensive construction phase followed by several decades of a relatively temperate energy production phase, and both gas and wind have been looked upon as drivers of economic growth and prosperity in rural areas (Kelsey et al., 2011, Slattery et al., 2011).

Much of the wind and natural gas development in the US has historically occurred in less-populated central and western regions: how and why local residents perceive of the positive and negative impacts from these energy developments – and ultimately support or oppose the projects – will become even more critical as these energy projects continue to expand into higher density and more privately owned areas of the eastern US.

It is becoming increasingly common for wind and natural gas developments to be sited in close proximity to each another—with multiple examples in Texas, Wyoming, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and other places. While both industries share a number of similarities in land use, there are clearly possible differences in how residents perceive of these energy sources. Wind energy is primarily noted for its esthetic impact on rural landscapes, while local environmental concerns (especially the impact on local drinking water) have come to dominate discussions on natural gas drilling.

This article describes the results of a 2011 mail survey measuring landowner attitudes toward both wind farm and natural gas development occurring simultaneously in the greater Armenia Mountain area of north-central Pennsylvania. The area has experienced heavy natural gas development since 2009, a 67 turbine wind farm was constructed there in 2010, and 56 more turbines are scheduled for construction in the near future. Survey results of landowner attitudes are measured against proximity to the developments, the reception of lease payments and production royalties, environmental attitudes, and how residents view wind development as compared to natural gas.