The Net-Zero Northwest Energy Pathways analysis suggests that energy demand in the Northwest would require 138 GW of new renewables (solar and wind) developed regionally by 2050, if the Northwest were to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Environmental and energy justice and equity must be at the forefront of siting and permitting considerations as new energy projects are proposed across the region to meet the demand for energy.
Energy project development has historically occurred at sites in and around disadvantaged and underserved communities, especially Black and Latinx communities, negatively impacting their health and environment. As renewable energy development accelerates in the Northwest, it is essential that equitable siting and permitting practices are followed to ensure that historical injustices on disadvantaged communities are not replicated.
Following a clear and comprehensive framework that ensures environmental justice issues are addressed and all impacted stakeholders are involved in the decision-making is critically important. Fortunately for Northwest policymakers, there are several established frameworks to consult.
Four interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks offer guidance for how to integrate environmental and energy justice into clean energy project development.
The Social Life Cycle Assessment recognizes that justice concerns extend across the life cycle of an energy system and seeks to optimize social sustainability in every phase. It assesses the social impacts on four stakeholder groups – Workers, Electricity Consumers, Local Communities, and Society – during five life cycle stages – Raw Material Extraction and Processing, Manufacturing, Electrical Power Generation, Transportation and Distribution, and Waste Management.
The Social Framework for Projects is a holistic and simple model that enhances stakeholder communication, clarifies priorities, and fosters positive developer-community relationships. The framework revolves around "people's wellbeing” and comprises eight key social and environmental categories, including:
This framework considers both the positive and negative impacts of projects across life cycles. The model is intended to be presented to community stakeholders in a workshop setting, facilitating an organized discussion and communicating the intent of developers to understand and address every potential community impact.
The Three Tenets of Energy Justice framework uses Distributional, Recognition, and Procedural justice to recognize, address, and prevent injustice. Distributional justice investigates where energy injustices emerge. Recognition justice seeks to understand which sections of society are ignored or misrepresented. Procedural justice considers the ways in which decision-makers engage with communities, highlighting three distinct mechanisms of inclusion: mobilizing local knowledge, disclosing information, and representation in institutions. The framework applies the three tenets to each life cycle stage and examines interactions among them.
The Meaningful Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) Development framework combines and builds on the three above frameworks. It breaks down the life cycle of an energy system into four key stages—Design, Installation, Operations and Maintenance, and Decommissioning—and considers four key stakeholder categories—People; Housing and Livelihood; Community Engagement; Culture, Land and Water; and Infrastructure and Environmental Impact.
In addition, the Meaningful MRE development framework expands the Three Tenets of Energy Justice to include Restorative Justice, which involves providing reparations for the environmental or social harm of energy projects and considers the costs and responsibility for restoration.
The best practices for incorporating environmental and energy justice into renewable energy project development lie in the intersections between and among these frameworks. The following commonalities provide crucial insight into the fundamental aspects of an impactful, equitable framework: (1) Whole-Systems Thinking, (2) Meaningful Community Engagement, and (3) Transparent Communication.
Successful frameworks are holistic. They take a whole systems or life cycle approach, recognizing that each stage of energy project development is deeply interconnected, and justice concerns are ever-evolving. Because justice is multigenerational and includes past, present, and future impacts, ensuring justice is served at each life cycle stage requires thinking across the system temporally from the outset.
A whole systems framework designates each stage of the process, from Raw Material Extraction or Design to Waste Management or Decommissioning, then outlines and plans for justice considerations at every stage.
Whole systems thinking also designates all potential stakeholders at each life cycle stage, considering both social and environmental categories. Identifying stakeholders ensures every potential justice issue is addressed and every affected community is engaged, from Design to Decommissioning.
A second common thread linking the four frameworks is meaningful community engagement. Environmental and energy justice is above all community-based, and addressing justice considerations in renewable energy development means addressing community considerations.
First and foremost, engaging with potentially impacted communities means meaningfully involving them in whole-systems decision-making early in the project’s life cycle to ensure that issues are heard, understood, and addressed before they arise and could potentially avoid the need for remediation further on.
By soliciting and addressing community input, concerns, and desires early on, developers can help communities define their own energy destinies. For further reading on the importance and practical application of early, direct, and meaningful engagement, consult CETI’s Community-Defined Decarbonization report.
Furthermore, meaningful community engagement means making it as easy as possible for community stakeholders to share ideas. While workshops and information sessions provide an opportunity for discourse, forums alone do not always result in meaningful engagement as noted in the Washington 2021 State Energy Strategy: “Equity is not in and of itself assured through fair and open public meetings. Fair and open public comment sessions do not invite comments from those historically excluded. These voices must be intentionally sought out, respected, empowered and privileged.”
There are numerous strategies to facilitate engagement beyond merely holding forums. Examples include: Providing accurate, simple, and interactive diagrams to facilitate discussion at forums; incentivizing participation by covering the cost of transportation to or childcare during the events; assembling an advisory board that includes local citizens, including youth participants; or engaging in knowledge exchange through storytelling.
What community involvement looks like will differ from place to place and it is essential to engage different communities to learn what they find most intuitive and meaningful.
Transparency is at the heart of an effective environmental and energy justice framework. This means clear, honest communication, as well as straightforward framework presentation. Forming a framework around simple diagrams clarifies priorities for project managers while enabling comprehension for stakeholders.
Communities often oppose development because they are provided complex, vague information, which causes skepticism and distrust. The transparent nature of a physical representation of a project helps increase understanding, which can lead to trust and community support. Community members will also find it easier to provide input in decision-making discussions when they can organize their desires and concerns around the specific categories of a diagram.
To ensure an equitable clean energy transition, Northwest policymakers must adopt a holistic, accessible, and transparent approach to ensure meaningful community engagement, not only at the siting and permitting stages but across the entire life cycles of new energy systems.
The coming decades are likely to bring significant clean energy development to the region, accelerating decarbonization and hopefully contributing to decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. However, true environmental progress will not be realized until all stakeholders are equitably involved and environmental and energy justice considerations are addressed upfront and throughout the decarbonization process.
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