Energy

The Challenge

The world is facing the greatest energy transition since the introduction of coal in the eighteenth century and gas and oil in the late nineteenth century. If the world is going to meet countries’ pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions drastically, the U.S. and others must move quickly to increase efficiency in buildings, transportation, and manufacturing; use electricity fueled by renewables to power almost everything from cars to the heat in our homes; and mine precious and rare metals for battery storage, solar panels, and advanced materials to make this all happen. Siting new energy infrastructure is central to achieving climate goals and also incredibly contentious. Conflicts arise around who benefits, what level of government should make energy decisions, environmental and social effects, and responsibility to future generations. As a result, those with diverse interests struggle to engage one another constructively.

Our Approach

Our mediators have extensive experience helping parties build agreements around numerous projects and public policies from the state to national level. Through its Mutual Gains Approach, CBI helps stakeholders:

• Understand one another better and address communities’ concerns over development of energy infrastructure such as transmission and offshore wind
• Explore possible solutions for protecting cultural and natural resources that are threatened by construction and operation of mining and energy facilities
• Find common ground around equitable distribution of benefits of the energy transition, while avoiding harm to communities that have carried the greatest burden from our past energy choices
• Develop new processes and procedures for governance of our energy choices, such as how we manage the storage and disposal of spent nuclear fuel

CBI has helped advance progress on contentious energy and extractive projects that include training Canadian First Nations and extractive companies in multi-party negotiation; helping the government of Chile create a long-term energy policy; and balancing the growth of large-scale renewables in the U.S. with other resource-users such as the commercial fishing industry and farmers. 

Areas of Expertise

• International, national, state, and local energy policy development
• State climate action plans
• Joint fact-finding on energy and extractive resource development’s positive and negative effects
• Energy markets and decision-making processes
• Transitioning to carbon-free energy systems
• Company-community engagement for siting and operating energy facilities
• Grievance mechanisms and dispute resolution between communities, government, and industry