Within environmental communication scholarship, energy democracy is a novel research arena with interdisciplinary capability ( Endres et al., 2016). Some propose that scholars have a responsibility to assist in the accessibility and social understanding of these issues ( Cox, 2007 Schwarze, 2007). This aligns with a broader effort in environmental communication to address human-caused threats to ecological systems and the failure of social institutions to confront these threats ( Cox, 2007). This evolution is especially apparent in democratic societies in which participatory communication is integral to resolving environmental issues ( Stephens et al., 2015).Įnergy democracy is a movement that aims to involve publics in energy decision making with emphasis on the transformation from fossil fuels to renewable energy and distributed systems ( Fairchild, 2017). The unprecedented speed at which distributed resources are changing energy systems underscores the challenge and importance of understanding the roles of humans in this transition. Conclusions and future directions for research in the growing area of energy democracy are discussed.Ī dramatic increase in solar power adoption has occurred in the last decade, in part because of the growing consumer interest in green energy, coupled with significant decreases in associated costs ( Weiner, 2015 Muro and Saha, 2016). We posit that this is due to the temporal context of each net-metering debate at the time of the handbook release. In addition, we found differences between each company’s use of key terms from the handbook.
We found that, in both cases, the suggested language was used to position their companies as pro-renewable energy and their utility-scale projects as more equitable for their customers. We examine two case studies in states with recent controversial net-metering policy changes by analyzing utility company websites and press releases for the use of the communication handbook terminology. We posit that aspects of the energy democracy movement have been employed by electric utility companies, as shown through the use of the handbook, as a strategy for communicating with customers in discussions around net metering. This handbook provides utility companies with strategic communication guidelines to portray themselves as supportive of renewables within a dynamic energy industry. To address these disagreements, the Edison Electric Institute and a communication firm, Maslansky & Partners, created The Future of Energy: A Working Communication Guide for Discussion. Proposals by electric utility companies to restructure net-metering policies as a solution to financial issues have been criticized as prohibitive to the success of renewable energy advancement. These tenets challenge utility company earnings as they are directly related to energy sales and infrastructure returns on investment. The energy democracy movement supports this transformation from fossil fuels to distributed renewable energy and aims for equitable involvement of publics in energy decision making. Department of Communication, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United StatesĪ substantial increase in distributed renewable energy resources is changing the face of the energy environment, leading to strategic communication efforts by key stakeholders.