Comment upon “Public goods and private interests: understanding non-residential demand for green power”

This article presents a critique of the recent contribution to Energy Policy (November 2001) by Wiser, Fowlie and Holt, entitled, “Public goods and private interests: understanding non-residential demand for green power”. In their article, the aforementioned authors explore the proposition that business and other organisations adopt green power, and will pay even a premium for it, because of what the authors describe as “altruism”. According to the article below, although Wiser et al. address an important problem and raise interesting issues, their attempt at challenging received theory and existing paradigms is undermined by the manner in which their research was undertaken. Deficiencies arise with regard to survey techniques, data preparation, model specification, and statistical methods. The deficiencies in their research methods cast doubt upon their findings, facilitating alternative interpretations of their empiricism.