Multi-Level Negotiations in Electric Infrastructure Planning

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Electricity has taken on increased significance in attempts to decarbonize the global economy. Electric infrastructural reform efforts require attention to social and environmental impacts of new technologies, including equity and climate concerns. Various stakeholders at multiple levels must negotiate to weigh these issues. How is this approached and what are the consequences in terms of implementation, equity and climate outcomes? This project tests theory from cultural anthropology to investigate how different levels of stakeholder, from individual, to community, to governmental, interact in energy infrastructure planning. It leverages emergent dynamics of unfolding energy initiatives to understand how energy politics is shaped by communities, powerful actors, and the law. Project data will be shared widely and results will be disseminated to academic and non-academic audiences, including policy experts and the public. The project uses interviews and participant observation to test research hypotheses that investigate how the politics of electricity are evolving as electrification becomes increasingly central to models of energy transition. Specifically, the project studies the motivations, stakes, attitudes and desired outcomes of six study populations: (1) state and local government officials, (2) electrical utility administrators and engineers, (3) energy transition entrepreneurs, (4) critics of electrify everything measures, (5) environmental activists and electrify everything champions, and (6) early adopter homeowners and drivers participating in new and recent electrification initiatives. The project will shed light on multiple layers of emergent political dynamics surrounding rapid electrification and their interactions as such initiatives take hold in numerous contexts.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.