Where were we when we were so rudely interrupted by Clean Line's failure? Back to the countdown with Clean Line Mistake #5 - Open Houses.
Transmission line siting "Open Houses" are a mistake for any transmission line company, so Clean Line isn't alone here. Their mistake was trying to mimic real transmission line companies in their public presentation, and then dialing up the hubris and deception to maximum levels.
Is there a "good" way to present a transmission line proposal to the public? Not if you're approaching the communities with a fully-formed idea of what you're going to build and where you're going to put it. The only good way to involve a community in a transmission proposal is to approach them with a need before making decisions about what to build and where. Presenting a community with a problem to be solved and allowing meaningful input into the solution selected is the only way a transmission company can get community buy-in and support for the proposal. Everything else is nothing more than a battle to push a bad idea the community doesn't want off onto someone else. And frankly, transmission folks, pitting neighbor against neighbor in a siting battle is becoming increasingly hard to pull off. You see, people realize that fighting each other only distracts from fighting the real enemy... YOU! Communities are increasingly coming together to fight transmission proposals altogether and refusing to participate in your siting game. So, whether it's the fiction of "Open Houses" or the even more contentious "town hall" style meetings, where every member of the audience hears every comment and response of the company sitting in the hot seat, a fully formed transmission proposal will inspire entrenched and stubborn opposition.
"Open Houses" are supposed to diffuse the charged, torches-n-pitchforks atmosphere that comes with a handful of company representatives vs. a room full of Mayberrians by separating the crowd to present a more "one on one" presentation that humanizes the presenters. Its as if the transmission company believes that by separating attendees into small groups and shuttling them around to different stations that the community can never form the mass that derails transmission proposals. Transmission "Open Houses" are fertile breeding grounds for the formation of opposition. Members of the community who may have never met before are gathered together for this glorious meet and greet and are free to form their own little discussion groups, whether inside the venue or outside on the sidewalks and in the parking lots. Contact info. is exchanged, and rough plans for community action against the project are discussed. It's a certainty that these folks will meet again, sooner rather than later. Opposition is born! After that first "Open House" it's easy for opponents to attend subsequent ones and gather new opponents to their group. It's also possible for transmission opponents from a different project to show up at that first "Open House" and begin the organizing process for a new group. Knowledgeable opponents are much more appealing to community members and they provide the key ingredient needed for successful opposition -- hope!
Clean Line got away with very few "Open Houses" that didn't attract traveling opponents from other projects. As this article notes, Susan Sack from Northern Illinois traveled to Southern Illinois to gather petition signatures and sow seeds of hope for communities devastated by Clean Line's Grain Belt Express proposal. And this wasn't Sack's first traveling road show! Opposition groups from numerous communities affected by Clean Line proposals joined forces to fight the company on all fronts.
Stuffed shirt transmission employees posing as "engineers" bearing food and cheap trinkets just didn't appeal to the communities when they were making claims that just didn't add up or make sense. The only ones who seemed to benefit from that were the affected feline population.
Transmission line siting "Open Houses" are a mistake for any transmission line company, so Clean Line isn't alone here. Their mistake was trying to mimic real transmission line companies in their public presentation, and then dialing up the hubris and deception to maximum levels.
Is there a "good" way to present a transmission line proposal to the public? Not if you're approaching the communities with a fully-formed idea of what you're going to build and where you're going to put it. The only good way to involve a community in a transmission proposal is to approach them with a need before making decisions about what to build and where. Presenting a community with a problem to be solved and allowing meaningful input into the solution selected is the only way a transmission company can get community buy-in and support for the proposal. Everything else is nothing more than a battle to push a bad idea the community doesn't want off onto someone else. And frankly, transmission folks, pitting neighbor against neighbor in a siting battle is becoming increasingly hard to pull off. You see, people realize that fighting each other only distracts from fighting the real enemy... YOU! Communities are increasingly coming together to fight transmission proposals altogether and refusing to participate in your siting game. So, whether it's the fiction of "Open Houses" or the even more contentious "town hall" style meetings, where every member of the audience hears every comment and response of the company sitting in the hot seat, a fully formed transmission proposal will inspire entrenched and stubborn opposition.
"Open Houses" are supposed to diffuse the charged, torches-n-pitchforks atmosphere that comes with a handful of company representatives vs. a room full of Mayberrians by separating the crowd to present a more "one on one" presentation that humanizes the presenters. Its as if the transmission company believes that by separating attendees into small groups and shuttling them around to different stations that the community can never form the mass that derails transmission proposals. Transmission "Open Houses" are fertile breeding grounds for the formation of opposition. Members of the community who may have never met before are gathered together for this glorious meet and greet and are free to form their own little discussion groups, whether inside the venue or outside on the sidewalks and in the parking lots. Contact info. is exchanged, and rough plans for community action against the project are discussed. It's a certainty that these folks will meet again, sooner rather than later. Opposition is born! After that first "Open House" it's easy for opponents to attend subsequent ones and gather new opponents to their group. It's also possible for transmission opponents from a different project to show up at that first "Open House" and begin the organizing process for a new group. Knowledgeable opponents are much more appealing to community members and they provide the key ingredient needed for successful opposition -- hope!
Clean Line got away with very few "Open Houses" that didn't attract traveling opponents from other projects. As this article notes, Susan Sack from Northern Illinois traveled to Southern Illinois to gather petition signatures and sow seeds of hope for communities devastated by Clean Line's Grain Belt Express proposal. And this wasn't Sack's first traveling road show! Opposition groups from numerous communities affected by Clean Line proposals joined forces to fight the company on all fronts.
Stuffed shirt transmission employees posing as "engineers" bearing food and cheap trinkets just didn't appeal to the communities when they were making claims that just didn't add up or make sense. The only ones who seemed to benefit from that were the affected feline population.
"One landowner came with a plastic sack and took about a two-inch width of slices of ham. I looked at him and he said, 'I've got cats,'" Nelson said. "Everybody else was saying, 'We might as well eat. That might be all we get.'
That might be all they did get, because they certainly didn't get a transmission line in the ham-bribed community.
Clean Line is dead.
Clean Line is dead.
RSS Feed