NSF Award
2400991
This doctoral dissertation project examines community perspectives on new low-carbon energy infrastructure projects by examining the role of public participation and landscape transformation in plans for energy transitions. By focusing on high-voltage transmission lines the project investigates transmission lines as both a mechanism for achieving state targets and as objects of opposition to specific decarbonization plans. Transmission has been identified as critical for expanding renewable energy generation, facilitating electrification, and interconnecting regional grids to improve reliability. Transmission projects have been increasingly delayed or cancelled due to conflicts over siting and permitting, however, and this project therefore focuses attention on the politics of transmission development. By analyzing the determinants of opposition to this new infrastructure, this research informs processes of transmission planning, procurement, siting, and permitting, in turn contributing to the advancement of infrastructure projects with higher rates of public support. The project also contributes to the training of an early-career social scientist.<br/><br/>This study examines the extent to which prevailing explanations for resistance to low-carbon energy infrastructure adequately encompass the full range of variables that compel communities to challenge the implementation of transmission lines. Methodologically, the project considers the geographical scale at which projects are framed and contested while simultaneously focusing on the politicization of energy transitions alongside public participation in energy governance. The project has multiple objectives. First, the researchers study energy planners’ justifications for transmissions lines, particularly as they contribute to regional energy transitions. Second, the research examines the perspectives of residents and other stakeholders and their respective understandings of the anticipated impacts of transmission development on environmental and energy landscapes. Third, the project considers the way in which members of the public contest plans for transmission development. Integrating interviews, document analysis, and participant observation, the project compares transmission projects in multiple locations. The research contributes to the subfield of political ecology by revealing the extent to which greater public participation in energy siting and permitting can potentially facilitate or impede energy transitions.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
