Negative Attitudes Against a Project Assignment | Negative Attitudes

NIMBY is a concept that describes the negative attitudes against a project that benefits the greater community. This mentality is one in which even though people are generally supportive of a project that will benefit the greater community, they don’t want to suffer the burden of bearing the cost(s) of the project. In terms of power generation, one of the biggest reasons against power plants, especially wind farms, is “visual intrusion.” Opponents of projects like these don’t want an eyesore as well as any noise, negative impacts on wildlife and displaced agricultural land. Something else to consider is whether or not the project will have an effect on property values which can serve to bolster NIMBY sentiment.

Having this mindset affects power delivery in that residents are forgoing access to more reliable power in favor of maintaining aesthetics or reasons like those listed above. This attitude halts progress and can ultimately waste money if proposed projects in an area where they have to jump through hoops to get local approval. Look at the Cape Wind Project for example, which was initially proposed in 2001 but died by litigation 16 years and 100 million dollars later.

Boyle, K. J., Boatwright, J., Brahma, S., & Xu, W. (2019). NIMBY, not, in siting community wind farms.Resource and Energy Economics,57, 85–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reseneeco.2019.04.004