Tackling Social Opposition: Can the Fossil Fuel Pipeline Playbook Work for the Grid?

Abstract

This Playbook will discuss the importance of transmission and the U.S. electric grid, starting with an examination of its history. The Playbook will review the historical funding from the Federal government to support new HVDC transmission development and the three leading barriers to its buildout. Going beyond the policy and financial barriers to transmission development, the Playbook will consider the impact of NIMBYism, the root causes of social opposition towards transmission infrastructure, and the importance of community engagement matters for limiting opposition. The Playbook will then review polling data surveying rural Americans to understand perspectives on the energy transition, levels of support for renewable energy, concerns about renewable energy projections, and potential messaging to garner support. Next, this Playbook will compare the characteristics of intrastate HVDC transmission lines and intrastate fossil fuel pipelines. The Playbook will utilize the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) Community Engagement Guidelines to identify techniques and strategies that can be adapted by transmission developers to overcome social opposition in local communities. The community engagement recommendations from the API Guidelines includes three phases of a community engagement plan. The Playbook also adapts exercises to begin stakeholder management, message development, and encourages continued evaluation and adaptation of the plan throughout the project’s lifecycle. After an analysis of the API Guidelines for community engagement, the Playbook will consider how to align the best practices with survey results from the rural Americans polling data. Finally, the Playbook will share additional resources for transmission developers as they develop their community engagement plans and work to reduce social opposition in project communities.