Broadwater Poll Seen As Flawed: Experts

By Tom Incantalupo, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Jan. 18–Two experts on public opinion research are criticizing as technically flawed a poll purportedly showing that 67 percent of Long Islanders favor Broadwater Energy’s proposal for a liquid natural gas terminal in Long Island Sound.

The experts say the polling company that was hired by Houston-based Broadwater distorted the results by failing to tell subjects that the project is controversial.

More than 2,000 people attended hearings on the project last week in Smithtown and Shoreham, just after the poll’s release, and more than 55,000 people have signed petitions opposing it.

Attendees at the Long Island hearings and two others in Connecticut, including elected officials and environmental and civic leaders, seemed overwhelmingly opposed on environmental and safety grounds to having the floating facility in the Sound, between Wading River and Connecticut, although construction unions and some business people spoke out in its favor.

Still, Broadwater senior vice president John Hritcko says he has faith in the poll. "It’s consistently tracking with what we’ve seen from day one," he said, contending that support for the project is building. "We’re seeing more people coming out in favor of it."

While making no mention of the controversy, the pollsters prefaced key questions with references to reports last year by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Coast Guard that the terminal, which would heat liquefied natural gas and pipe it ashore as a gas, could be operated safely and with minimal environmental damage.

"That sounds like the government is putting its imprimatur on it," Peter Tuckel, a professor of sociology at Hunter College who has written extensively on polls, said after a reporter e-mailed him a copy. "I have definite concerns about [the poll's] validity based on certain biases that intruded into the wording of the questions."

Philip Meyer, a journalism professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a nationally recognized expert on polling, said, "It’s common to present a controversial issue in polling, but it’s usually framed on the basis of, ‘Some people say this, some people say that.’ That gives it some balance."

But Hritcko said, "I find it hard to believe when they talk to registered voters that somebody hasn’t heard about it [the controversy] already, particularly this January."

The telephone poll of registered voters, conducted between Jan. 3 and Jan. 7, queried 1,005 residents of Nassau and Suffolk on their views about natural gas supplies, prices and environmental impacts before asking specifically about Broadwater. The poll takers prefaced the final question, which elicited the 67 percent favorable response, with the statement, "Studies have shown that the Broadwater project could save New York residents approximately $300 on their energy bills per year."

In fact, the studies, done by a consultant to Broadwater to buttress its application for federal permits, predict "direct and indirect" energy savings, says Hritcko — not $300 a year off natural gas and electricity bills. The forecast savings are based on reduced energy costs for a wide variety of businesses. "It would have an impact throughout the region as far as whatever uses energy," Hritcko said.

Several speakers at last week’s hearings expressed skepticism about the $300 claim. "We call it the Pinocchio promise," said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the 80,000-member statewide Citizens Campaign for the Environment. "It’s not real — not going to happen."

The polling company was Penn Schoen & Berland Associates, a 30-year-old firm which has offices in Manhattan, Washington and Denver and says on its Web site, "Our mission is to leverage consumer opinion to provide clients with a competitive advantage." Its clients have included Bill Gates and Microsoft, former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Company officials did not return telephone calls yesterday seeking comment.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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