Move toward 'economic reconciliation' must also come with healing: AFN national chief

Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press

Assembly of First Nations National Chief RoseAnne Archibald says advancing "economic reconciliation" must go hand in hand with helping communities heal from intergenerational trauma. 

She says the federal government needs to strike a balance between the two issues — and sees both the governing Liberals and Opposition Conservatives as missing a piece in their respective approaches toward reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.

Speaking after the release of Tuesday's federal budget, the national chief said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has failed to create more economic opportunities for First Nations and that a new "economic deal" with Ottawa is needed.

But she also said the federal Conservatives "might be missing" the need for the federal government to help communities heal from the legacy of residential schools, which comes to the surface every time a First Nation announces the discovery of possible unmarked graves. 

"You have to have both the economic deal and you also have to have the ways and means to heal this intergenerational trauma," Archibald said in a post-budget interview, adding she believes the federal government should establish a "national healing fund."

"We have to move the yardsticks in a balanced way, and I think that's what the Conservatives might be missing," she said. "The Liberals, on the other hand, are missing the economic piece."

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has framed his reconciliation agenda around economic matters, promising that if he wins power, he will create more ways for First Nations to access revenues from natural resource projects developed on their land.

The Liberals have committed to exploring the same, pledging almost $9 million in the new budget to consult with Indigenous leaders on what a "national benefits-sharing framework" might look like. It was one of the only measures in the spending plan that Poilievre voiced support for.

Dakota Kochie, who was a chief of staff for Perry Bellegarde when he served as national chief, said it appears the Liberals are "at least taking the first step to figure out what does a national economic reconciliation strategy looks like."

Also included in the budget plan is a commitment to have Indigenous Services Canada spend $5 million on co-developing an economic reconciliation framework. 

The document also promises millions to fund initiatives to increase Indigenous participation in the assessment process for infrastructure projects, including those that extract resources from their territories. 

With the Liberals proposing to spend $83 billion on clean-technology investment tax credits until the 2034-35 fiscal year, the government should seize an opportunity for Indigenous Peoples to be included and fully consulted, Kochie said. 

He predicted that finding more ways to include Indigenous people in the economy will be a major issue for the next decade.

Adding equity and inclusion into infrastructure projects "has the benefit of completely transforming the economic relationship that Indigenous people have with Canada," he said.

"If they feel like that they have access to a safe job, a well-paying job, potentially unionized job, that really helps shift the economic outlook for First Nations people." 

And if they have a chance to get hired into jobs close to their communities, that's even better, he said.

After the budget's release Tuesday, the federal government also faced criticism for the amount of new infrastructure dollars allocated for improving on-reserve needs such as housing. 

Ottawa said it plans to inject $4 billion over seven years into an urban, rural and northern Indigenoushousing strategy beginning in 2024-25, but that remains under development, and only $1.9 billion of the money is slated to be spent over the next five years.

It's a fraction of the money that major Indigenous organizations have been asking for.

Trudeau had promised that by 2030, his government would ensure First Nations have the infrastructure funding and support needed to have same quality of housing, roads and schools as non-Indigenous communities. 

But the First Nations Finance Authority said in a statement Wednesday that it was mistake for Trudeau's government not to heed its call to find a more "innovative" way of funding infrastructure to achieve that goal. 

It had requested the federal government set aside $200 million a year, which the authority would monetize to get infrastructure projects built more quickly. 

"The federal model for funding infrastructure has failed to deliver the housing, clean water and other critical infrastructure that will improve the living conditions in First Nations communities," CEO Ernie Daniels said. 

The government noted that much of its spending on reconciliation-related initiatives in the latest budget comes from money flowing out of multi-year programs that were introduced in previous spending plans. 

Max FineDay, the head of the consulting firm Warshield, which advises Indigenous leadership on international partnerships, said that since the Liberals came to power in 2015, the government has focused on tackling many of the large social issues Indigenous people face. 

He said he hopes what the budget represents is a shift towards the government including more economic matters as part of that work, given how many of the existing problems Indigenous people face are perpetuated by poverty. 

FineDay added that more and more Indigenous people, particularly those in the younger generations, are starting their own businesses.

"We're seeing a generation who are hungry to generate wealth for themselves, and their families, who are hungry to develop jobs for their community and make up for the lost time."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 29, 2023.

Five things to know about Canada's electricity overhaul as budget spurs clean tech

Mia Rabson, The Canadian Press

Clean electricity was one of the stars of Tuesday's federal budget, with almost $1 in every $8 of new spending the budget anticipates in the next five years targeting Canada's electricity dreams.

That includes a new tax credit worth 15 per cent of investments made to build new renewable energy infrastructure, including wind and solar plants, nuclear reactors, emissions-trapping natural gas plants, new transmission lines between provinces and territories and stationary electricity storage, such as batteries.

The tax credit is set to kick in a year from now, be available for 10 years and cost an estimated $25.7 billion by the time it winds down in 2035.

And another $3 billion is being added by 2035 to a program that gives grants to companies and provincial and territorial governments that are looking to modernize existing power grids or install new renewable power.

Why is all this money necessary?

Here's a snapshot of Canada's power situation and Ottawa's aspirations of what it could be.

1. Clean power, all the time

Canada's target is to make the entire power grid entirely emissions-free by 2035. By 2050, the entire economy is to produce no emissions it cannot capture with nature or technology. At the same time, power needs are being driven by the electrification of the economy, including transportation. All those electric vehicles have to get their charge from somewhere.

The only way to do all of that is to make a lot more power, and make more of it come from renewables. The country is already getting off coal, the most emissions-intensive source of electricity. Ontario eliminated coal in 2014, and by 2030, Canada's regulations require all coal power plants to be closed or abated with carbon capture and storage technology.

The United Nations recently said that wealthy countries like Canada need to get off natural gas, too, but Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has been clear that eliminating it as a power source isn't realistic for Canada, and the emissions it produces can be captured.

Coal now accounts for seven per cent of our electricity, and natural gas 11 per cent. Hydroelectricity is about 61 per cent, nuclear about 12 per cent and wind about six per cent.

The Canadian Climate Institute said last year that to power its net-zero economy in 2050, Canada will need two to three times as much power as it generates now. And 75 per cent of the additional power will have to come from renewables like wind and solar to ensure that Canada doesn't exceed its emissions goal.

Renewables are already growing quickly. In 2010, wind made up less than one per cent of the total power that was generated. The Canada Energy Regulator predicts that by 2050, wind will make up almost one-fifth of the country's total electricity production.

2. The dream of an east-west power grid

In the 19th century, it was a national railroad. In the 20th, it was a national highway.

Now, in the 21st, the coast-to-coast connectivity dream is an east-west power grid, one that connects provinces with power to sell to those who need to buy it. Largely due to geography, there are many power lines between Canada and Northern U.S. states. But there are very few connecting one province to another.

It has been a dream, particularly in power-rich provinces such as British Columbia, Manitoba and Quebec, to build transmission lines to sell their clean hydroelectricity to places like Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and the Maritimes, which have been more dependent on coal and natural gas. That dream has been dashed many times, with repeated failures to build a transmission line from Northern Manitoba to Ontario and from British Columbia to Alberta.

The latest interprovincial proposal, the Atlantic Loop, has been in negotiation for more than three years already. The project would connect hydroelectric power from Quebec and Labrador to displace coal-fired power in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Ottawa has expressed keen interest, and the premiers are all pretty gung-ho. But even in Tuesday's clean-electricity heavy budget, the project is still just listed as being negotiated. The timeline for its completion extends to 2030.

3. Red tape everywhere

Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson points out, any time he is asked about a national grid, that connecting power between provinces is a complicated effort. There is provincial jurisdiction over resources and federal environmental jurisdiction over interprovincial projects. There is the need for Indigenous consultation and buy-in. Not to mention the 10 different provincial electricity regulatory systems and the federal government's myriad of electrical rules and policies.

Electricity Canada's recent report on the "state of the Canadian electricity industry" in 2023, says the federal government alone has more than 90 different regulations affecting electricity, from greenhouse gas policies and fisheries and migratory birds.

Politics and regulatory reviews meant it took Manitoba more than 10 years to build a single, 1,400-km transmission line from its northern dams to its southern power customers. The Bipole III line was an election issue during at least three provincial campaigns in Manitoba.

Canada is in now the midst of developing regulations to enforce its 2035 clean power grid goal. The regulations were initially expected in December, but they have been delayed.

4. Big money

The Conference Board of Canada has estimated it could cost more than $1.7 trillion to get Canada's power grid to produce as much power as is needed, without emissions, by 2050.

Connecting provinces by power lines will also carry a hefty price tag. In 2016, B.C. estimated a new transmission line to Alberta would cost $1 billion. Bipole III, completed in 2018 after four years of construction, cost more than $5 billion. And the Atlantic Loop estimate is also $5 billion.

But it is getting cheaper to build renewable power. Unlike a coal, gas or nuclear plant, which all have to buy input fuels to make electricity, solar and wind farms source their power for free, so the costs have more to do with construction and maintenance.

As demand grows and technology improves, the cost of solar and wind power has plummeted. Globally, the cost of solar power fell 90 per cent between 2009 and 2019 to an average of US$40 per megawatt hour of power. Wind power costs fell from US$135 to US$41 per megawatt hour.

A natural gas plant can cost about US$56 per megawatt hour, but that's not including the technology Canada will insist on to trap its greenhouse gas emissions. Coal power was about US$109 in 2019, but Canada is phasing out coal, and no new coal plants will be built. The average Canadian home uses about 25 megawatt hours of electricity in a year.

5. The copper conundrum

Building all this new power is going to require materials, and lots of them. Steel, fibreglass, plastics, and aluminum for wind turbines. Silicon, glass, aluminum and other materials for solar panels. Transmission lines and towers will also require steel and millions of kilometres of wires, which in turn will require millions of tonnes of copper.

Jerome Leroy, the vice-president of the business unit at Nexans North America, said a clean power grid by 2035 is a big ask to get all the wire made, and all the copper needed. 

"It is a challenge," said Leroy, whose company makes electrical transmission lines.

He said that last year, the global supply of copper was about 23 million tonnes, mainly sourced from Canada, the United States and South America. Demand was just under that at 22 million tonnes, with more than half of that consumption coming from China. By 2030, the expectation is that supply may grow to 27 million tonnes, but demand will grow to 35 million tonnes.

Leroy said there are ways to get more copper, largely through recycling programs that seek to remove copper from transmission wires that are being replaced, and from the scraps of the new ones being installed. Getting copper from scrap wire alone could add four million tonnes of copper back into the supply chain, he said.

But the capacity to turn that copper into usable wires and transmission lines is also not big enough. Leroy said the challenge is not insurmountable, but is one that must be addressed.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 29, 2023.

This is a corrected story. An earlier version misidentified Jerome Leroy from Nexans North America as Jerome Fournier from Nexans Canada.

ESG reporting expectations on suppliers growing: BDC

The Canadian Press

A new report finds that small and medium suppliers face growing expectations from their larger customers to report on environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards.

The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) survey of 121 large companies and public-sector buyers found that already, 82 per cent require some disclosure from their suppliers on ESG, but that's expected to grow to 92 per cent by 2024.

The entrepreneur-focused BDC says three-quarters of the large organizations surveyed also said that over the next five years they plan to increase their ESG expectations on a range of areas like energy use, diversity in hiring and environmental risk management.

The rising standards on smaller companies come as big companies are under pressure from investors to report a more detailed ESG picture across their entire supply chains.

The bank says that in a separate survey of 1,251 small- and medium-sized companies, three-quarters said adopting ESG practices had benefited their business, including through new opportunities, employee well-being and easier financing.

BDC chief executive Isabelle Hudon said in a statement that the report captures a "sobering reality for small businesses": if they don't have ESG reporting, they're going to be cut off from some of the most lucrative supply chains. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 30, 2023.

Grocery code to increase 'fair and ethical dealing' industry, draft report says

Brett Bundale, The Canadian Press

An industry group set up to hammer out a Canadian grocery code of conduct is getting closer to a final document, even as the way its terms will be enforced remains unclear.

A new working draft of the grocery code viewed by The Canadian Press and verified by two grocery sector sources lays out the fundamental elements of the industry-led accord, which aims to increase "fair and ethical dealing" across the grocery supply chain in Canada. 

Still, while a final code is anticipated this spring, several potentially large stumbling blocks remain.

The draft notes that dispute resolution mechanisms are still under development, though it notes that an escalating range of options from informal discussions to formal arbitration are on the table. 

It also appears to be undecided how enforcement would be handled and how membership and participation in the code will work. 

The industry committee working on the grocery code was established in response to contentious fees being charged to suppliers by large grocery retailers.

While its not unusual for grocery stores to charge vendors fees for such services as marketing, shelf placement, inventory costs, packaging and deliveries, these costs have historically been negotiated between retailers and suppliers.

However, big grocery chains have increasingly unilaterally imposed new or higher charges on suppliers, putting smaller grocers without the same clout at a disadvantage. 

The issue came to a head in 2020 when Walmart Canada announced a fee hike that prompted United Grocers Inc., a national buying group that represents Metro Inc., to tell suppliers it expected the same.

Within months, Loblaw Companies Ltd. moved in the same direction, telling suppliers the cost of getting products on shelves would rise to help fund improvements to the grocer’s in-store and digital operations.

Industry observers at the time cautioned that the trend of big grocers using their market weight to impose fees without negotiations could lead to less competition, higher food costs and fewer brands on store shelves.

The industry-led grocery code of conduct was proposed as a way to address long-standing issues such as arbitrary fees, cost increases imposed without notice and late payments.

The code aims to offer retailers and suppliers a mechanism for how fees and fines are levied in the grocery industry. 

The final code, slated to be ready in the coming weeks, is also expected to address the issue of supply in the grocery sector, ensuring smaller, independent grocers get fair access to goods. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 30, 2023.

 

Can The U.S. Really Achieve 100% Clean Electricity By 2035?

By Felicity Bradstock - Mar 26, 2023

• The U.S. is aiming to achieve 100% clean electricity by 2035 and a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.
• 
  
• The Pathways to Commercial Liftoff reports have been launched to increase public and private engagement in the clean energy industry.
• 
  
• The clean energy industry requires an increase in investments up to $300 billion by 2030 to achieve the U.S. decarbonization goals.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) has just launched a new department-wide initiative to drive the public and private sectors’ engagement with clean energy technology. This follows commitments made in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) climate policy. And there are big plans for clean tech across several energy sectors, with huge amounts of funding being pumped into innovation and development. But with the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) already threatening some of this development, what will happen in the booming U.S. clean tech industry? 

This week, the DoE announced it was launching its Pathways to Commercial Liftoff, a set of reports that reflect the organisation’s initiative to enhance engagement between the public and private sectors to drive forward innovation, development, and adoption of clean energy technologies. This supports the Biden administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and IRA, to achieve the U.S. climate targets of 100 percent clean electricity by 2035 and a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm stated of the new reports, “As we combat the climate crisis and race towards an equitable clean energy future, public and private partnerships will be more important and critical than ever before.” Granholm added, “The Liftoff reports will help drive engagement between government and industry to unlock exciting new opportunities and ensure America is the global leader in the next generation of clean energy technologies.”

Supported by its new climate policies, the U.S. plans to pump billions of dollars of public funds into the large-scale demonstration and deployment of clean energy technologies. This investment is expected to attract trillions in funding from private companies as the country invests in a decarbonised future. The purpose of the Liftoff reports is to provide insights to guide private investments in clean energy tech and advance the sector. The anticipated spill-over effect of this sectoral growth includes job creation, improved supply chains, greater energy security, global competitiveness, and the acceleration of the green transition.

The reports determined that investments in the sector must increase from a projected $40 billion at present to $300 billion by 2030, across the hydrogen, nuclear, and long-duration energy storage sectors, with investments continuing to grow until 2050 to achieve U.S. decarbonisation aims. The Liftoff reports will be used as ‘living documents’ to inform investment opportunities in the sector and will be regularly modified as the technology and outlook change. The DoE plans to gather knowledge from industry, investors, and other stakeholders to inform these documents and drive investment in the sector.

The principal technologies outlined in the reports continue to face major challenges, which the DoE hopes greater funding in innovation will help to overcome. For example, long-duration battery storage requires a decrease in price by around 50 percent, while also aiming for enhanced performance. Meanwhile, Jigar Shah, director of DOE's Loan Programs office emphasised that advanced nuclear deployment would require orders for 10 new reactors of the same design by 2025 to supplement clean energy projects in the green transition. He highlighted the worries of many utilities around cost overruns and abandonment risk.

The DoE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) has already begun to help clean energy tech companies such as Parsons Corporation, which received $14 million for the development of technical, programme, and project management support in nuclear energy. Jon Moretta, President of Engineered Systems for Parsons, stated “We have supported DOE in advancing new sustainable technologies from development to commercialization for decades and are eager to work with OCED in promoting projects to facilitate the global energy transition and spur economic growth. This work, which is underpinned by IIJA funding, is accelerating the creation of a decarbonized energy system and is an important step in our collective efforts to deliver a better, cleaner world.”

While the announcement of DoE funding alongside roadmaps for investment in the sector mark a major step forward for the clean energy tech industry, business has been hit hard in recent weeks by the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank. Clean energy start-ups and companies across the U.S. could face challenges in gaining access to funding, which could slow anticipated advancements that were spurred by the IRA and BIL. The IRA offers around $370 billion in climate and clean energy funding. However, the collapse of the SVB has caused a banking sector scare and led tech start-ups to reassess their vulnerabilities. They could now face higher interest rates and may look for funding opportunities in major banks rather than regional financial institutions to better guarantee their financing. This could slow progress as companies take longer to assess financing opportunities and gain approval. 

Afsaneh Beschloss, the founder and CEO at investment firm RockCreek, explained that the IRA was expected to drive clean energy opportunities in low-income communities and “one of the biggest places that was supposed to happen was through local community banks . . . That is going to be hugely impacted.” SVB had 1,550 clean technology firms as clients and the collapse has sent a threatening message to other potential clients of local banking institutions.

The DoE’s new Liftoff reports are expected to support new U.S. climate policies and spur investment in the clean energy tech sector. The DoE will adapt advice provided in the reports with the evolution of technology across several sectors, aimed at attracting greater financing from the private sector. However, as the collapse of the SVB recently stalled progress by clean energy start-ups, we could see a de-acceleration in the sector while these companies assess safe funding opportunities.  

 

Saudi Aramco To Build $10 Billion Refinery And Petrochemical Complex In China

By Charles Kennedy - Mar 27, 2023

• Saudi Aramco plans to build a $10-billion refining and petrochemical complex in China in order to take advantage of the country’s growing fuel and chemical demand.
• The complex is set to have a capacity of 300,000 barrels of crude per day, with Saudi Aramco supplying 201,000 barrels per day.
• 
  
• The project is scheduled for completion in 2026 and is part of a larger Saudi Aramco strategy to secure long-term demand for its oil.

Saudi Aramco plans to build a $10-billion refining and petrochemical complex in China over the next three years, taking advantage of the country’s growing demand for energy.

The complex will have a capacity of 300,000 barrels of crude daily, Aramco said in a news release. The Saudi major will supply 201,000 barrels per day to the facility.

The project will be carried out in partnership between Aramco and two Chinese companies. Construction works should begin in the second half of this year, with the project scheduled for completion in 2026.

“This important project will support China’s growing demand across fuel and chemical products. It also represents a major milestone in our ongoing downstream expansion strategy in China and the wider region, which is an increasingly significant driver of global petrochemical demand,” said Aramco’s head of downstream, Mohammed Al Qahtani.

The news follows another report, from December last year, that said Aramco had struck a deal with China’s Sinopec to build a 320,000-bpd refinery and petrochemical cracker in China, highlighting the latter’s major role in global oil consumption yet again.

Refining and petrochemical investments have been a priority for Aramco as it seeks to secure long-term demand for its main product, even as it expands local refining capacity as well.

According to the International Energy Agency and other forecasters, a bet on petrochemicals is a good long-term bet in the oil industry amid expectations of a decline in oil demand for transport fuels.

Indeed, the IEA has projected that petrochemicals will account for more than a third in oil demand growth by 2030, rising to 50% of demand by 2050 as transport electrifies.

If the expected global transport electrification does not take place on the expected scale, however, this higher demand for petrochemicals will simply be added to total oil demand, including for transport fuels.

China is the most obvious destination for new petrochemical projects: the country is the world’s largest crude oil importer and one of the top three consumers of the commodity.

The Impact Of Misinformation On Wind Energy Development

By Felicity Bradstock - Mar 27, 2023

• Misconceptions and poor public opinion have hindered the development of wind energy projects. 
• 
  
• The article gives an example of a wind energy project in New South Wales and its opposition from some of the residents. 
• 
  
• Greater public engagement, community support, and re-education are vital for meeting renewable energy targets and achieving a clean energy transition.

As green energy projects are being rolled out worldwide, and political policies are catching up to climate targets, one thing that’s lagging behind is community support. Increasing renewable energy capacity to the level that’s needed to leave fossil fuels behind requires the backing of the public and a movement away from the not in my backyard point of view. In addition to the unwillingness to embrace renewables when it’s close to home, a flurry of misinformation has hindered many projects in recent years, demonstrating the need to re-educate and encourage greater support for green in practice as well as theory. 

In New South Wales, Australia, there are plans to cluster major wind and solar projects across five Renewable Energy Zones (Rez), established by the NSW government, to enhance storage and transmission potential. The town of Welcha sits in the New England Rez, which has major wind potential. But poor public opinion continues to stand in the way of the development of major new renewables projects in the region, as the government and private firms push to boost the region’s clean energy capacity to support a green transition. 

Danish renewable energy major Vestas is the biggest stakeholder in the planned Winterbourne windfarm, which was initially announced in 2004 with construction expected to finally begin in 2024. It is expected to have a capacity of 700 MW when complete, with an investment of over $1 billion. To achieve this level of wind power, the farm will have up to 119 turbines with a maximum height of 230 metres. Related: German Grid Operators Unveil €128 Billion Plan For Green Energy Shift

Despite the project offering huge potential for a movement away from fossil fuels to renewable alternatives in the region, many locals are not so keen on the development. Some residents worry about the appearance of the turbines, while others are concerned about their impact on tourism and the threat to biodiversity in the area. To counter these concerns, project developers are providing a $1 million community development fund for the town’s 3,000 residents. A further $750,000 will be made available annually once the project is up and running, as well as an additional $1,000 for every megawatt generated over 600 MW. Vestas also anticipates the creation of up to 400 jobs in the building phase and 16 long-term maintenance jobs, bringing vital employment opportunities to the region. 

But Welcha isn’t the only place where residents are concerned about new wind projects. This is a sentiment that’s being felt down the whole of the Australian east coast, following the launch of several green energy projects. And outside of Australia, it’s a concern that has been heard across Europe and North America for decades. The not in my backyard (nimby) point of view has been repeated time and time again, first with the explosion of fossil fuel projects and now in the development of renewable energy capacity across the rural landscape. 

When it comes to wind turbines, the level of misinformation that has spread in recent years is significant. And while some of the tales may have been true in the technology’s nascent phase, recent innovations have improved the turbines immensely, leaving less cause for concern. Some of the worries, that have been disseminated via social media, include the noise pollution caused by the turbines, as well as completely false discourses such as the negative health effects of low-frequency infrasound, as well as suggestions that wind energy does not reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and photos of wind turbines breaking, burning, and falling. This has led residents near proposed wind farms worldwide to lobby against the developments. As state governments and local councils contend with the concerns of the local communities, trying to dispel the misinformation, many wind projects are being delayed or cancelled altogether. 

In the Netherlands, proposed wind farms in an estimated one-fifth of Dutch municipalities have been negatively affected due to a lack of local support, with dozens being cancelled or delayed. Meanwhile, the percentage of Swedes in favour of greater investment in wind energy fell from 74 percent in 2009 to 65 percent in 2019. And in Germany, several wind project operators are battling against protestors in court for their developments to go ahead. 

To change the negative opinion of wind farms, many local councils and project developers are now engaging in discussions with communities and calling for active citizen participation. This can help to address some of the concerns, dispel misinformation, and communicate the benefits of the project. In addition, greater information from the government about how new renewable projects could help to lower energy prices and boost energy security could bolster public approval. But the failure to rapidly address public concerns and offer comprehensive education on wind energy and other renewables projects could lead to the further spread of misinformation and the persistence of the nimby viewpoint.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com