Patrick Field – Resolving Land and Energy Conflicts

Datum: 7 juni 2021, 19.30 tot 20.30 uur

Onderwerp: Resolving Land and Energy Conflicts

Spreker: Patrick Field

There is no free lunch! Energy siting is a complex endeavour rife with high risk, high uncertainty, and the one certainty that one constituency or another will be angry and opposed. And this holds true whether the energy project is a gas and oil pipeline or an offshore renewable wind project. There are no “good guys” in energy siting, however noble the policy goal may be in protecting our planet, creating jobs, or fuelling our advanced economies. But, negotiation theory and practice do offer lessons for how to approach such cases. Meaningful if imperfect engagement is possible. This webinar will explore the sources of energy siting conflict in the USA, offer case examples of using mutual gains negotiation to improve processes if not outcomes, and conclude with key principles to inform better energy siting processes.

Patrick Field was until recently Managing Director at the Consensus Building Institute and Associate Director of the MIT-Harvard Public Disputes Program. For 24 years, he has built consensus and collaboration capacity on complex public and organizational issues in the U.S. and Canada. His primary focus is building agreements on and finding solutions for the built and natural environment across sectors, interests, disciplines, and organizations. Patrick has worked with major industrial sectors in energy, mining, construction and development, and food and agriculture. His cases have involved energy facility siting, river, estuarine and groundwater restoration, food system and sustainable agriculture policy and programs, land use and transportation projects and wildlife management.