Thursday, August 8th at 11 AM ET via Zoom
Guest Speakers:
Thursday, August 8th at 11 AM ET via Zoom, we heard from Marisa Sotolongo and Annabel Shu with the Initiative for Energy Justice (IEJ). Marisa and Annabel discussed IEJ’s recent white paper, Community Benefits Policy and Energy Justice, which explores how local, state, and federal policies can redirect the benefits of energy infrastructure investments to underserved and overburdened communities. These policies can create a robust platform for advancing energy justice initiatives such as labor agreements, pollution reduction, and energy democracy.
However, to fully realize the potential of these policies, further interventions are needed to increase community control, governance, and democracy. Without these, we risk perpetuating the same inequitable structures. Marisa and Annabel also discussed ongoing work tracking state legislation that requires Community Benefit Agreements (or Host Community Agreements for certain development projects), and how existing agreements between communities and energy developers are being implemented.
Event recap – a robust discussion
The summaries of all of our monthly CBA meetings can be found here. We have a library of community benefits resources located on our website.
The IEJ’s white paper in particular finds that Community Benefits effectiveness varies widely based on how they are implemented and how much communities are consulted, and in particular, how diverse and vulnerable stakeholders are included (or excluded).
There was a robust discussion on the call. Here is a brief summary of some of the topics of conversation, as well as resources shared.
Several examples to community benefit agreement that were part of the background research for this paper were shared:
- The Salem SAFE CBA which was created for an offshore wind development.
- An example how a local community foundation engaged in a CBA process for an off shore wind project is the Community Foundation for Nantucket.
- Here is the Nantucket Trust good neighbor agreement.
Topics included the need for communities get organized as soon as possible around proposed or anticipated projects. Having a coalition or network in your community can help with negotiation, misinformation, as well as having better access to proposed projects in advance.
The EFI Foundation mentioned they are publishing a report in September that lays out what communities can expect when going into negotiations. It’s based on case studies of binding agreements put in place over the past 20 years in analogous sectors.
Further discussion – “Citizens Advisory Boards”
Several groups mentioned the need for “Citizens Advisory Boards” or equivalent structures to obtain and formulate community input and guide and negotiate the Community Benefits Plans and Agreements. With the caveat that this is not a simple task, it is one that could build long term capacity in the region.
Long-term engagement was noted as particularly important for two reasons: First, to address any ongoing conversations, issues or concerns over the lifetime of the project/development, and second because it allows the community to be better prepared for future projects/developments that may come to the community.
The Just Communities Protocol was shared as an example tool to help communities get organized and gather other stakeholders. Fair Shake also has a tool for creating strategy to approach this work.
Fair Shake also has a tool to help community members decide if a board or advisory committee is a good opportunity to meaningfully influence company operations and decisions or a problematic use of community voices to “rubber stamp” a process without authentic participation. That tool is here.
There was more conversation not captured. Please be in touch with any questions, suggestions for future topics, articles, tools, case studies, etc. that may be useful as we explore this work.
About Community Benefits:
This call is part of our monthly Appalachian Community Benefit Network Call series, a space for the growing conversation around community benefits in the Appalachian region. These calls are the second Thursday of each month at 11 am ET and include a presentation followed by time for networking, discussing questions and sharing resources around community benefits.
As part of the unprecedented climate and energy infrastructure investments launched by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), some funding awardees are now required to implement Community Benefits Plans (CBPs) as a condition for receiving their grants and loans. In addition, Community Benefit Agreements, Project Labor Agreements, Good Neighbor Agreements, etc. remain an important tool for communities hoping to ensure that new projects bring value to their communities, land, and workers.