Public Participation

Recent public opinion research confirms what many power plant developers have increasingly suspected: local communities often reject new facilities that pose any perceived change in their health, safety, environment or property values. These developers have already discovered that the best site for their projects is not necessarily the one they would prefer to build on, but rather the one that community members will allow them to build on. More and more, they understand that project success often depends on devising innovative methods of public participation – of engaging their neighbors and responding to legitimate concerns.

One successful engagement tactic may be to create a community advisory group. The purpose of this group is to create a forum where the proposed project can be presented to community “opinion leaders” and their suggestions for improvement or modification of the public engagement process can be considered by the developer. Issues might include where a facility will be located on its future site, how landscaping and other mitigation measures will be carried out, what kind of community benefit package might be acceptable, etc. Involving local people in even relatively minor decisions usually avoids major opposition later on. In other words, if the process is perceived as fair, the outcome will also generally be perceived as fair.

The Terra Group has designed public participation strategies for:

Baltimore Gas and Electric Company

Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company

CAES Development Company

Toledo Edison

Wisconsin Energy Company