PUBLIC-PARTICIPATION IN ENERGY FACILITY SITING .1. CASE-STUDY RESULTS

The objective of this paper is to determine to what extent public participation has been effective in influencing recent energy-facility siting (EFS) decisions for nuclear and coal-fired power plants in the Ohio River Basin. Licensing requirements, review procedures, and criteria were studied for six basin states, along with utility-siting criteria and siting methodologies. Six case-study power plants (four coal-fired and two nuclear) were investigated in detail. It is concluded that the current regulatory/adjudicatory EFS process is not conducive to meaningful public participation for a wide range of reasons, which include the following: (1) Lack of public involvement during the crucial early site screening stage; (2) lack of public information during the long draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) stage; (3) the negative effect on public trust caused by site purchase and limited site work before issuance of the DEIS; and (4) siting methodologies that heavily emphasize technological criteria. Nor are utilities well served; since the review process heightens uncertainty about the outcome in the following ways: (1) Changing regulatory criteria; (2) time-conditioned permits; (3) lack of generic EISs or policy statements on such issues as fuel alternatives, agricultural production, land use, and energy conservation; and (4) threat of legal action by interveners. © ASCE.