The Transmission Study Making the Rounds on the Hill

This week’s conversation is with Ray Long, president and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy, or ACORE. A representative of one of Washington’s most influential climate tech policy trade groups, Long is also a seasoned veteran of the energy sector across fossil and carbon-free power and now an industry thought leader based in Washington. I caught up with him at ACORE’s Grid Forum last week and asked him how companies are doing against NIMBYs.

Developers of gas infrastructure – are they spending more, less, or the same as renewable energy developers on community engagement? Who spends more on community engagement?

I just don’t know. I have no idea. It’s hard to gauge. And let’s talk about why – each company doesn’t disclose how much they spend on community engagement. You know, it’s not like you can go see who is registered to lobby in different areas, it’s not clear. I suppose you could go back after the fact and look at community benefit funds and those sorts of things that get put together but I’m just not sure if that’ll give you the snapshot that you’re looking for.

I’m curious if you feel if developers in renewable energy are spending enough of their capital on getting the consent of host communities.

Having worked for a renewable developer I can only speak from the perspective of the experience I had there. My sense is, across the industry, you’ve got different levels of companies that have different levels of sophistication and different levels of capabilities to do those things. And I’ll say this: even the sophisticated companies that are going in early, having the conversations and doing all the things that I would say would be a strategic way to getting it done… even they’re running into opposition. I don’t think it’s really any different than some of the fossil plants in my experience where there has been politicization.

Given the various degrees of sophistication and the various degrees of capacity, how would you score the renewable energy industry’s success rate at dealing with project opposition?

One of the places you can look at data is NEPA – the environmental impact statements. You know that NEPA impacts wind, solar, transmission, and fossil. Stanford [University] did this really interesting study where they looked back 10 years and they pulled all the environmental impact statements that had been submitted and then they graphed it, and they looked at it from the standpoint of which projects had been delayed, litigated, and ultimately canceled. Going in, if you go into Democratic offices and you talk to them in Washington, the impression a lot of us had was, I’d guess fossil projects would be the first. They’d be delayed the most, litigated the most, canceled the most. But it wasn’t. It was solar, wind… fossil’s fourth. That study was fascinating. That’s one of those things making the rounds now on the Hill as Democratic offices are considering the permitting and transmission bill.

But so many of these projects don’t require a NEPA review. How is the industry doing when it comes to dealing with the local county clerks?

I think it really depends on which technology, which company is going in. What’s their approach to it. It’s really hard to give a grade to the industry as a whole.

What would you say to a developer on best practices for community engagement in your view?

Number one, go into a community as soon as you think you have a project you’re going into. Start to talk to local people there about what their interests are and understand why. You’ve got to have a sense of curiosity, and develop an understanding of what people’s motivators are.

The second thing is hire local. Get some local people that you’re going to work with, who understand the community and can best advise you on it.

The third thing is, as you look to pull your project together and you think about your permitting structure, start to build in those things that the community cares about. Only then, when you have a line of sight on doing that, start the permitting process.

I certainly hope companies heed your advice.

Well if you look at the success record, companies that do that have a higher success record than those who don’t.