Top Ten Clean Line Mistakes - #2 Marketing to Mayberry

Oh yes, they did!

That was the most disgusting display of condescending arrogance ever demonstrated by a transmission developer, or even a wanna be like Clean Line.

Electric Utility Consultants Inc. (EUCI) is a company that makes its money organizing and running "continuing education" seminars for utility employees.  Their seminars don't come cheap, often running more than $1500, plus travel, meals and expenses in some warm, touristy spot (especially in the winter).  I'm not sure they even pay their presenters, I think the presenters volunteer because it's a free trip to some place nice and it spit shines the ol' ego to get to be the utility clown at the front of the room telling your peers how great thou art.  It's just one big utility party where the participants endlessly congratulate each other for being jerks.

EUCI has long been a source of personal amusement.  No better place to find goofy bits of utility arrogance.  What DO the utility guys say about you when they're not pretending you matter during local open house dog & pony shows?  It's not very flattering, or even very truthful.  But this... this conference hosted by Clean Line Energy Partners has to be the epitome of utility vainglory.  So, I shared it with my friends in Mayberry.  They were not impressed.

In fact, they got really, really angry.

Nobody likes being talked about behind their back.  And when people are belittled and characterized as, well for lack of a better word, stupid, it's game over.

So, here was Clean Line, pretending it had devised a "market leading compensation package" that landowners loved.  It was pure fiction, of course, but EUCI glorified it and made Clean Line a member of its transmission developer stable.  Finally, Clean Line was allowed into the big boy's club!  And then things got a little carried away.  As a "host" for the conference, Clean Line was seen as responsible for its content.  What caused the cutsie-poo but insulting topic names?  Why was this conference so much more offensive to landowners than previous ones?  I guess nobody ever considered that the subjects of ridicule would ever see the conference brochure; or did they actually believe landowners would think the topics were as cute and funny as the conference organizers did?  What a colossal mistake!

Marketing to Mayberry: Communicating with Rural America

Communications and marketing outreach in small town America requires entirely different tactics than those used with larger more metropolitan communities. Join this conversation to learn some of the pitfalls to avoid and the strategies to deploy when reaching out to small communities. Attendees will learn to prepare for the challenges of engaging a rural setting, communicate in a conversational tone rather than corporate tone, identify and engage credible spokespersons in rural communities and understand which communications and marketing tactics to utilize.

Essentially, you're implying that rural America is just like a popular TV show and that the characters who populate it are silly, uneducated sheep who are easily manipulated by certain "tactics."  Whoever dreamed up this ridiculous description needs to do some severe binge watching because they completely missed the underlying theme of the show.  Rural America is far from stupid, and the show was a work of fiction based on an earlier era.

Regarding the tone of the show, Griffith said that despite a contemporary setting, the show evoked nostalgia, saying in a Today Show interview: "Well, though we never said it, and though it was shot in the '60s, it had a feeling of the '30s. It was, when we were doing it, of a time gone by."

It's no longer the 1930s -- or even the 1960s -- so why would a transmission developer base its "tactics" on its idea of rural America gleaned from an ancient sitcom?  Yes, Clean Line and its big boy peers are really that out of touch.  No wonder they failed miserably.  And then there was...

Going BANANAs with NIMBYs – Best Practices in Dealing with Community Based Opposition Groups

Increasingly, organizing public participation opportunities means having to handle disruptive influences from community-based opposition groups - BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere near Anything/Anyone) and NIMBys (Not In My Back Yard). This presentation will discuss experiences at Southern California Edison and how the company has adapted to this new business environment. Southern California Edison is currently experiencing one of the largest infrastructure capital investment programs in company history. Driving this are multiple factors, including California’s ambitious renewable energy goals and the need to replace aging infrastructure that was constructed during the post-World War II boom. As a result, the opportunity for community based opposition groups to develop has increased significantly. Recent advances in technology have made it easier for community-based opposition groups to organize and, more importantly, to strategize. With the opportunity cost of starting and participating in such groups constantly decreasing, it is important for public participation practitioners to have a healthy understanding of how such groups are motivated and how to manage them effectively.

The discussion will provide the audience with best practices on dealing with community- based opposition groups as well as tips on how to prepare internal, technical subject matter experts to effectively handle emotionally charged situations. These best practices are based upon the experiences of Southern California Edison’s local public affairs department.

Here transmission opponents are grouped, given derogatory names and false motivations.  It is insinuated these groups are "managed" by transmission developers.  News Flash!  It is the groups who "manage" transmission developers!  We know all your "secrets" and because you do the same thing every time, we know how to effectively manage YOU.  It's no longer us reacting to your "tactics," it's you reacting to our tactics and struggling to keep up.  And then you lose.

In the wake of public anger following the exposure of Clean Line's little conference, company nimrods tried to back away from the stinking mess.

Lawlor confirmed that these sessions did happen at the Electronic Utility Consultants, Inc. (EUCI) Eighth Annual Public Participation for Transmission Siting conference, held in Houston, Texas in January, but it was not organized by CLE. Lawlor said that his group did not participate in the classes after learning of the class titles. “The folks that came up with the titles were from other states,” he said. “Marketing to Mayberry was by somebody from Washington. We asked to participate and… as soon as we found out about those names we withdrew from the conference and withdrew from participation in the organization going forward.”

Oh, please.  Clean Line was the conference host.  You expect "Mayberry" to believe you had absolutely no idea about the conference content?  I don't believe you.  And furthermore, your claim that Clean Line had withdrawn from participating in EUCI conferences going forward was hogwash.  A recent crawl through upcoming EUCI conferences shows multiple presentations by Clean Line employees.   Here's just one example. 

As conference host, Clean Line got to be the keynote speaker.  And what did Clean Line intend to say to kick off the derogatory festivities?

Keynote Presentation: Lessons Learned - Clean Line Energy discusses challenges during Public outreach Process
Clean Line energy will discuss the public engagement challenges that are inherent when developing and building new large infrastructure projects. How do we overcome these challenges and work to ensure that our stakeholders feel they are informed and part of the process, each step of the way? He will discuss the lessons learned and some of the challenges faced in his career developing transmission projects across multiple states.
- Jimmy Glotfelty, Executive Vice President, Clean Line Energy

Something they had not managed to actually accomplish.  Clean Line never "overcame" the challenges it faced from public opposition groups.  In fact, those challenges effectively tanked all Clean Line's projects.  Perhaps this is because Jimmy's "career developing transmission projects across multiple states" never actually happened.  If that was a "career," Jimmy needs to find a new one because he never successfully developed any transmission project.

And then there was:

Case Studies: Understanding ins-and-outs of utilizing social media for Public engagement

In a time where social media is one of the most common forms of communication, it is important to understand when it is appropriate to utilize it to engage the public and stakeholders during the transmission siting process. It is crucial to understand when to use it as a main form of communication or as a supplementary form of communication - and who you can expect to reach, and how. This presentation will use and demonstrate how social media is currently being used as an integral portion of a public outreach and communications plan.
- Louisa Kinoshi, Associate, Clean Line Energy

Social media -- another "tactic" Clean Line never seemed to be able to manage.  I know I've been long blocked from posting on Clean Line Energy's facebook page for speaking truth to power, but what is up with your facebook page, Clean Line?  It seems it no longer exists.  I guess that makes it officially a "supplementary form of communication" and you no longer have a "public outreach communications plan."  You're really not fooling anyone any longer, Clean Line.  You're history!

Gladly stepping up to "host" the Marketing to Mayberry conference (either with or without knowledge of the content of said conference) was a huge blunder on Clean Line's part.  Marketing to Mayberry created a lot of enemies for Clean Line, often people who had tried to give the company the benefit of the doubt, or sit on the fence.  Marketing to Mayberry removed all doubt about the morals and character of a company proposing to condemn land for their own financial gain... and then laugh at and mock the victims of their scheme.

Now Clean Line is "marketing to" no one.  No one at all.