How Not To Plan New Transmission

It's all the rage in the environmental non-profit circle to produce recommendations for how the government could overcome the impending resistance to new transmission from impacted landowners.  The sad thing is that none of the groups writing this tripe have the first clue about why landowners resist, how they form and operate their grassroots opposition, or how to change things for the better.  You'd think they'd want to engage with transmission opposition groups to actually understand the problem they are trying to solve, but they don't.  That's because none of this nonsense is attempting to solve anything, it's just a charade to try to make government officials believe they have the answers.  Doesn't mean those answers are right.  In fact, they are wrong as can be.  If the government wants to know why there is always, and I do mean ALWAYS, opposition to new transmission, then they'll have to get their hands dirty and consult the opposition, not some glad-handing, self-righteous environmental justice groups who have never had to deal with new transmission proposed in their own community.

I've read a lot of these bogus "solutions" to transmission opposition, but I ran across one this morning that takes the cake. These bloviating pretenders have written something so completely meaningless that even the government is going to laugh at it.  There's a lot of words in it, but it's nothing but a word salad of nonsense.  I read a lot of crap.  I write a lot of crap.  Words are my friends.  But I've never come across something so completely senseless.

This paper was created by a group who "met in New Orleans" last fall.  I wonder who paid for them to live it up while pretending they were solving important societal problems?  They even gave themselves a name that doesn't make sense, "The Equitable Grid Cohort."  The group consists of "25 community and environmental justice leaders, electric grid analysts, and labor representatives."  Right... people who have never been impacted by electric transmission at their own homes or deigned to speak with a transmission opposition group.  These self-important blowhards who did not participate with any persons affected by electric transmission wrote this:

Participatory design gives all stakeholders a sense of ownership over the ideas generated in response to a problem and helps ensure that the ideas and outcomes meet their needs.

Hah!  That's rich.  What part of these recommendations were "participatory design" that "meets the needs" of people impacted by new electric transmission?  None of them.

HYPOCRITES!

First you need to practice what you preach! 

But why do that when you can indoctrinate your fellow idiots, especially wokester government officials.

...the Equitable Grid Cohort recommends that stakeholders introduce these principles via a popular education model or participatory design approach. Popular education is a technique designed to raise the consciousness of its participants and allow them to become more aware of how an individual's personal experiences are connected to larger societal problems. Participatory design gives all stakeholders a sense of ownership over the ideas generated in response to a problem and helps ensure that the ideas and outcomes meet their needs.

Stop it, this makes no sense to real people outside the Beltway!  Was it written in Wokenese to appeal to the government functionaries holding the taxpayer purse strings?  Or do you really talk like that every day?  Life must be rough if you do!  How do you even order a cup of coffee?   "I'd like you and your co-workers to meet to develop an equitable, organic chalice of sustainable, quietly ground woke syrup for me, but only if you're not triggered by this request?"

Some of the recommendations here stand a snowball's chance in hell of ever happening, but the Equitable Grid Cohort is so clueless about the energy world that they don't know how ridiculous they sound. 

Grid decisionmakers such as the MISO Board should not be selected by or only accountable to electric industry insiders. Grid decisionmakers should protect against outsize influence by utilities and private actors. One way to implement accountable grid decisionmaking would be for MISO to establish a shared accountability committee empowered to oversee decisions. The shared accountability committee would be made up of a democratically elected set of impacted community members and workers. The committee would have a democratic and equitable meeting process designed to ensure all members have equal influence and respect.

Nobody who wants their lights to turn on when they flip the switch wants the grid planned by a bunch of woke idiots spewing nonsense.

Or perhaps this...

Utility funds should be set aside in a dedicated account from which impacted communities engaging in grid infrastructure decisionmaking can draw to hire experts and representation to inform their members and represent their interests in technical matters requiring expertise. This funding should be sufficient to cover communities' entire costs of participation, and utilities should have no influence over whether or how the funding is provided.

And where do you think utilities get their "funds", little cohorts?  From ratepayers.  The utilities are never going to let this happen.  Dream on!   They're not going to go for this, either...

Decisionmakers must provide opportunities for communities to share revenue and retain community control of grid infrastructure.

Why would a "community" share in the wealth when only certain members of the community are actually sacrificing anything for the transmission project?  Here again, they are overstepping by including the broader "community" in compensation.

Meanwhile, "local" concerns are often conflated with wealthy landowner concerns, giving private property owners weighted influence and access to the benefits from projects, even when a broader spectrum of community members are affected. In the Northeast and California, the Citizens Transmission model imparts ownership of a portion of the transmission to create electricity affordability and other opportunities for low-income families in the communities affected by the construction.

Let's see... wealthy landowners actually impacted by transmission should share their compensation with "communities affected by the construction."  Aren't these the same people?  They're either wealthy or low-income, but not both.

Grid infrastructure jobs should be made available first to workers in impacted communities.
All workers should be provided rigorous education about the electric grid transition, ongoing job training, and technical assistance. This education and training should be prioritized for workers from impacted communities and businesses owned by women and people of color.

So now transmission companies must train impacted landowners to build the transmission that will wreck their own properties?  Well, I'd feel really safe if electric transmission was built by a bunch of people who had never done it before.  How about you?

That's enough of that.  I can't think about this codswallop any longer.

So, I hope the cohorts had a good time in New Orleans because the result of their meeting is a laughable failure.