MJB&A Releases Report on FERC Stakeholder Engagement Process

More than 40 years ago, Congress directed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to establish an Office of Public Participation. After decades of tireless advocacy, this spring, FERC began a process to do so, and solicited feedback on how to establish the office. Landowners and community members affected by proposed projects, environmental and consumer advocates, energy companies, State and Tribal governments, and many more provided more than a dozen hours’ worth of spoken comment and more than 100 written comments on the form, function, and goals of the office.

Recommendations spanned from the broad and sweeping, such as revamping the outreach process for affected stakeholders, to the narrow but no less important, such as ensuring key materials are translated. Across all comments, stakeholders pushed FERC to establish a structure that would improve the public’s and key stakeholders’ ability to engage with complex FERC issues.

A new report from M.J. Bradley and Associates, Establishing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Office of Public Participation: A Review of Stakeholder Input, explores in detail the key recommendations from this diverse and experienced set of commenters.

The report synthesizes thousands of pages of comments and distills key recommendations to help further guide the development of the office of Public Participation. The report was commissioned by NRCD's Sustainable FERC Project.

The full report is available here.

An executive summary is available here.