Resolving Land and Energy Conflicts

Description

A study of the underlying dynamics of energy siting across resources and kinds of energy. Resolving Land and Energy Conflicts studies energy in the landscape across gas and oil, wind, transmission and nuclear waste disposal. The authors are particularly interested in the conflicts that emerge from specific sites and proposals as well as how this unique land use plays out in terms of conflict and resolution across scales and jurisdictions while touching on broader issues of policy and values. Resolving Land and Energy Conflicts briefly explains the general context around the energy type; the impacts and conflicts that have arisen given this context; the role laws, rules and jurisdictions play in mitigating, resolving or creating more conflict; and the ways in which communication, collaboration and conflict resolution have been or could be used to ameliorate the conflicts that inevitably arise.

Patrick Field is managing director at the Consensus Building Institute and associate director of the MIT-Harvard Public Disputes Program. Tushar Kansal is a senior associate at the Consensus Building Institute with several years of experience as a facilitator, mediator and trainer in collaborative problem solving and negotiation within and across organizations. Catherine Morris is a senior mediator at the Consensus Building Institute. She has more than 15 years of experience as a mediator and consensus builder and over 20 years of experience in energy and environmental regulation and policy. Stacie Smith is a senior mediator and director of workable peace at the Consensus Building Institute.

The book does an incredible job of distilling complex land use conflicts associated with energy production into succinct summaries and well-formulated recommendations that are ready to be picked up by any conflict resolution professional working in land use planning and/or energy facility siting. -Alex Renirie and Todd Jarvis, Mediate