The Minister of the Environment Keit Pentus said that Estonian people have become constantly more aware of the fact that negative impact related to polluting power production concerns directly their own living environment and causes additional load. "Estonian power production has centred on oil shale for years and naturally, the people are just tired of the impact caused by oil shale electricity through waste or air pollution. Eventually, all this impact shall be paid by the consumers themselves, and there is no logical reason why we should prefer more expensive and polluting electricity instead of cleaner and less burdening power," the Minister of the Environment Keit Pentus said. 44 % of the participants in the survey answered that the most important aspect for them, in relation to power production, is as low impact of the production to the environment as possible. 36 % considered cheap price the most important, while 21 % preferred independence from foreign sources of power production. The survey also asked to provide assessment to various methods of power production. 1005 participants provided the most positive assessment to wind energy. Wood and biomass took the second place, while the most negative assessment was provided to nuclear energy. The survey was conducted among the people in the age of 15-74 years in the period of 31.05.–13.06.2012. The number of respondents was 1005 and the results can be extended to relevant population of Estonia. The survey was ordered by the Ministry of the Environment and conducted by Turu-uuringute AS.  Summary of the Estonian population survey |
