From Pushback to Powerlines: Unpacking the Anatomy of Successful Stakeholder Collaboration in Energy Transmission Planning

Abstract

Despite recent federal investments to accelerate the clean energy generation, there is an increasing lag between transmission grid development and the pace of renewable deployment. The United States energy transition faces a structural bottleneck in its ability to build the transmission infrastructure needed to distribute renewable energy and meet national emissions reduction goals. Public opposition has emerged as one of the primary causes of these delays. While existing literature has examined the drivers of public resistance and acceptance in energy projects, there is comparatively little research on the ways opposition can evolve into support. To address this gap, this thesis investigates the dynamics of stakeholder engagement behind a rare success story: The Ten West Link transmission project. Accordingly, this research asks: (1) What were the primary public concerns driving public opposition to the Ten West Link project? And (2) Why did the problem-solving, collaborative, and decision-making mechanisms employed by stakeholders succeed in transforming public resistance into support? To answer these questions, I apply an original three-layered framework grounded in political economy and discourse analysis, examining: (1) how meaning was constructed through stakeholder narratives, (2) the procedural and institutional design of the planning process, and (3) the practical responses of Renewable Energy Technology (RET) actors to public concerns. Through this framework, this thesis examines how opposition was initially mobilized around environmental and cultural resource concerns, and why it was ultimately transformed through a combination of institutional, procedural, and concessionary mechanisms. The overriding conclusion from this research is that although efficiency- and financially driven engagement mechanisms contributed to the project’s technical success, their ability to limit community agency and procedural equity renders them unsustainable as a long-term model for equitable transmission deployment at the scale required to meet U.S. decarbonization targets. The Ten West Link case demonstrates that while an instrumental rationale for engagement facilitated project delivery, its practices did not substantively or sustainably embed community voice in the planning process. Ultimately, this research indicates that the success of future transmission projects depends on the federal government and regulatory agencies embedding frame-inclusive and adaptive engagement strategies into planning structures. By treating infrastructure as both a technical and socio-political system, this thesis contributes to an emerging strand of research that emphasizes the importance of institutional design, procedural justice, and stakeholder trust in energy governance.