The transmission industry, safely ensconced in its self-congratulatory echo chamber dream world, continually perpetuates poor performance, execution mistakes, and bad ideas.  In the real world where the rest of us live, successful "public participation in transmission line siting" is based on successfully interacting with the public to convince them that a project is needed, and to maintain  effective communication with the public as a project proceeds through approvals.  It's all about what the public deems successful, since they are the ones who are "participating" in said project information sessions.  It really does no good for other deaf and blind transmission owners to judge whether their transmission-owning peer's transmission projects are successfully participating with the public.  This blind leading the blind self-contratulatory echo chamber reaches a pinnacle every year with EUCI's (that's Electric Utility Consultants, Inc., whose sole existence is derived from getting the utilities to participate in its continuing "education" seminars) Public Participation in Transmission Siting Conference.  During this conference, utility employees make presentations crowing about their "success" participating with the public, even when the reality is that said utility employees are piloting a rapidly sinking Titanic of a failed public relations program.  For example, PATH's PR laughing stocks presented this little gem just 6 short weeks before withdrawing project applications and giving up, after being thoroughly trounced by that "entrenched opposition":

LEVERAGING LESSONS LEARNED

Tom Holliday, Director of Communications Services, American Electric Power

Doug Colafella, Manager, External Communications, Allegheny Energy

American Electric Power and Allegheny Energy are applying best practices to help gain approvals for the Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH), a 765-kV project extending 275 miles through West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland. Learn how the two companies are working together to apply successful strategies for grassroots outreach, community involvement, and public education while contending with project delays, entrenched opposition, and the economic downturn.

So, what are participants at EUCI's conference really learning?  How to congratulate each other for failure, apparently.  Yee-Hawwww!

This year's conference upped the fun factor by adding a special award to the festivities:
 
EUCI will debut the EUCI Excellence in Public Participation in Transmission Siting Award! The 2013 award will focus on the most engaging, creative, and useful websites. Websites serve as a foundation for sharing project information with the public. EUCI wants to recognize and share the industry's most engaging transmission line siting websites. Finalists will present at the conference and winners will be chosen by the conference attendees.

Wowzers!  It's almost like winning the lottery, huh?  In addition to this great honor, tell the audience what the winner will receive, Rod Roddy...

Rod Roddy:  Winners will receive:

Highlight of website and award announcement in EUCI Energize Weekly newsletter

Web banner recognition for winning website

Award Plaque for your office !!!

What do you get when you combine a bunch of self-congratulatory airheads taking nominations for their website award with two successful transmission opponents who never miss a chance to tell the industry the fearful truth?

Ta-Daaaaa!

We thought our entry would be immediately tossed in the cyber trash, after all, we didn't attempt to hide anything.  It was just a little laughter over a couple of beers.

Apparently there's dumb and then there's EUCI dumb.

I do have to hand it to them for running a "fair" contest and making sure all "entries" were judged inside the self-congratulatory transmission echo chamber by public relations shysters in denial:  a panel of industry experts to include RES Americas, PEPCO, American Transmission Company, Allegheny Energy, Southern California Edison, and The Wilderness Society.  Just a little FYI observation... some of the transmission project judging species are much dumber than others...

So, did we win?  Of course not!  EUCI and their transmission owner stable don't want to feature and award any "public participation" that actually got its hands dirty participating with the public (to stop an unnecessary transmission project).  Therefore, in the spirit of EUCI's self-congratulatory echo chamber, we hereby award ourselves the FIRST ANNUAL EFFECTIVE PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN THE REAL WORLD TRANSMISSION PROJECT OPPOSITION WIN! Award.

It's just as valid and just as satisfying as any award from EUCI's echo chamber, and best of all, the industry stays safely separated from any real world truth so they can keep making the same "public participation" mistakes that doom transmission projects.

So, which websites won the "contest" and were judged "most engaging, creative and useful for the public?"  I can't speak to three of the nominees, but one of the websites nominated was Clean Line Energy's Rock Island Clean Line website.  Useful?  Creative?  The last time I checked, Clean Line was busy deleting comments from and banning "the public" from participating on their websites.  Not very "effective" participation with the public in my book.  RICL's opposition seems to be doing a better job here and here.  Maybe I'll make Block RICL its very own special little website ribbon to compete with RICL's... sort of a People's Choice Awards vs. The Oscars thing.  

Thanks for the laughs, EUCI, your organization plays a great straight man!  And thanks for sending "Allegheny Energy" our contest entry so that our little coal fella could have a panicked moment wondering if his peer judges were laughing at him (and yes, indeed they were!)  And thanks for making sure that none of that nasty ol' reality confronts any of your precious transmission owners and makes them question their bag of stale "public participation" best practices that are easily neutralized by reality-based opposition.