The Solution
Energy for Us believes that a successful strategy for mitigating local opposition starts early, and starts with listening. Our experience has shown that direct conversations with community members – at their doors and online – pays huge dividends. An early, integrated field and social media program can:
Identify concerns that, if left unanswered, could turn into the basis for growing grassroots opposition.
Identify needs that can be met with community benefit agreements and other programs that have real and meaningful impacts.
Correct misinformation through honest, fact-based conversations.
Create a permission structure that allows residents to be for something, and the language to express that support, instead of just being against everything.
The team behind Energy for Us has seen firsthand how this strategy works. In one successful statewide campaign, our field workers knocked on 500,000 doors. Online, our social media organizers (real people!) have posted over 14,000 comments on related issues in four states. And in all cases, we've seen the tone and tenor of the debate slowly shift as we push back against misinformation and make a clear case for our side.
Those early conversations aren't enough, of course. But they can serve as a basis for coalition building and can inform data driven polling. And when that research identifies effective messages, those early conversations often produce the people who can become the most authentic and effective messengers in paid communications.
As one 35 year veteran of energy policy described Energy for Us, "they are like an anti-NIMBY SWAT team."