Abstract
Development of renewable energy affects or is affected by numerous stakeholders. Understanding who the stakeholders are and how they are engaged in the process is necessary for improving the responsible development of renewable energy technologies. Using structured community interviews and in-depth ethnographic research (semi-structured interviews, informal interviews, observations, and document review), we identified and characterized the most salient stakeholders associated with tidal power development in Maine and documented stakeholder perceptions of developer engagement strategies. Stakeholder characterization was facilitated using a framework by Mitchell et al. (The Academy of Management Review 22:853–886, 1997) that characterizes salient stakeholders using attributes of power, urgency, and legitimacy. Key stakeholders identified include fishermen, community members, tribes, regulators, developers, and scientists. Fishermen and regulators are definitive stakeholders, with legitimacy, power, and urgency in the process. Tribes are considered dominant stakeholders; they have legitimacy and power, but their interests are, at this time, not viewed as urgent. Scientists are considered to have urgency and power. The developers viewed their stakeholder engagement strategy as open and transparent. Community stakeholders, regulators, and fishermen generally perceived the developer's approach as effective; they noted the company's accessibility and their efforts to engage stakeholders early and often. Given the dynamic nature of stakeholder salience, our findings highlight the importance of engaging dominant stakeholders so that future conflict can be more easily avoided as new information develops. Our approach can be used to inform stakeholder identification and engagement research in other renewable energy contexts.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams, M., D. Wheeler, and G. Woolston. 2011. A participatory approach to sustainable energy strategy development in a carbon-intensive jurisdiction: the case of Nova Scotia. Energy Policy 39: 2550–2559.
Agterbosch, S., R.M. Meertens, and W.J.V. Vermeulen. 2009. The relative importance of social and institutional conditions in the planning of wind power projects. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 13: 393–405.
Bardach, E. 1998. Getting agencies to work together: the practice and theory of managerial craftmanship. Washington.: Brookings Institution Press.
Beard, R.E. 2009. Best practices and a case study in stakeholder and public engagement in siting ocean energy projects. University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Sea Grant.
Blackstock, K.L., G.J. Kelly, and B.L. Horsey. 2007. Developing and applying a framework to evaluate participatory research for sustainability. Ecological Economics 60: 726–742.
Boehlert, G.W., and A.B. Gill. 2010. Environmental and ecological effects of ocean renewable energy development: a current synthesis. Oceanography 23: 68–81.
Breukers, S., and M. Wolsink. 2007. Wind power implementation in changing institutional landscapes: an international comparison. Energy Policy 35: 2737–2750.
Bryson, J.M. 2004. What to do when stakeholders matter. Public Management Review 6(1): 21–53.
Bryson, J.M., and B.C. Crosby. 1992. Leadership for the common good: tackling public problems in a shared world. San Francisco: Jossey-Boss.
Charlier, R.H., and C.W. Finkl. 2010. Ocean energy: tide and tidal power. Berlin: Springer.
Conway, F., J. Stevenson, D. Hunter, M. Stefanovich, H. Cambell, Z. Covell, and Y. Yin. 2010. Ocean space, ocean place: the human dimension of wave energy in Oregon. Oceanography 23: 82–91.
Devine-Wright, P. 2005. Local aspects of UK renewable energy development: exploring public beliefs and policy implications. Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability 10: 57–69.
Eden, C., and F. Ackermann. 1998. Making strategy: the journey of strategic management. London: Sage.
El Bassam, N. 2001. Renewable energy for rural communities. Renewable Energy 24: 401–408.
Elliott, D. 2000. Renewable energy and sustainable futures. Futures 32: 261–274.
Firestone, J., and W. Kempton. 2007. Public opinion about large offshore wind power: underlying factors. Energy Policy 35: 1584–1598.
Firestone, J., W. Kempton, and A. Krueger. 2009. Public acceptance of offshore wind power projects in the USA. Wind Energy 12: 183–202.
Freeman, R.E. 1984. Strategic management: a stakeholder approach. Boston: Pitman.
Gill, A.B.. 2005. Offshore renewable energy: ecological implications of generating electricity in the coastal zone. Journal of Applied Ecology 42: 605–615.
Glaser, B.G., and A.L. Strauss. 1967. The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. New York: Aldine.
Glicken, J. 2000. Getting stakeholder participation “right”: a discussion of participatory processes and possible pitfalls. Environmental Science and Policy 3: 305–310.
Hindmarsh, R., and C. Mathews. 2008. Deliberative speak at the turbine face: community engagement, wind farms, and renewable energy transitions in Australia. Environmental Policy and Planning 10(3): 217–232.
Holmes, T. and Scoones, I. 2000. Participatory environmental policy processes: experiences from north and south. IDS Working Paper 115.
Hopkins, W. 2009. Presentation at the 2nd Annual Global Marine Renewable Energy Conference at the Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington, D.C., April 16, 2009. Available at: http://www.globalmarinerenewable.com/images/stories/2009Presentations/WillHopkins-2009GMRE.pdf. Accessed 29 Jun 2012.
Jansujwicz, J. S., and Johnson, T. R. 2013. Understanding and informing permitting decisions for tidal energy development using an adaptive management framework. Estuaries and Coasts. doi:10.1007/s12237-013-9678-0.
Johnson, T., and G.B. Zydlewski. 2012. Research for the sustainable development of tidal power in Maine. Maine Policy Review 21(1): 58–64.
Johnson, K., S. Kerr, and J. Side. 2012. Accommodating wave and tidal energy—control and decision in Scotland. Ocean and Coastal Management 65: 26–33.
Kempton, W., J. Firestone, J. Lilley, T. Rouleau, and P. Whitaker. 2005. The offshore wind power debate: views from Cape Cod. Coastal Management 33: 119–149.
Meltsner, A. 1972. Political feasibility and policy analysis. Public Administration Review 32: 859–867.
Mikalsen, K., and S. Jentoft. 2001. From user groups to stakeholders? The public interest in fisheries management. Marine Policy 25: 281–292.
Mitchell, R.K., B.R. Agle, and D.J. Wood. 1997. Toward a theory of stakeholder identification and salience: defining the principle of who and what really counts. The Academy of Management Review 22: 853–886.
Newman, W.M., and M.G. Lamming. 1995. Interactive system design. Wokingham: Addison-Wesley.
Ocean Energy Task Force (OETF). 2009. Final report of the Ocean Energy Task Force to Governor John E. Baldacci. Augusta, Maine. www.maine.gov/spo/specialprojects/OETF/Documents/finalreport_123109.pdf. Accessed 24 May 2012
Parent, M.M., and D.L. Deephouse. 2007. A case study of stakeholder identification and priorirization by managers. Journal of Business Ethics 75: 1–23.
Polagye B., B. Van Cleve, A. Copping, and K. Kirkendall. 2011. Environmental effects of tidal energy development. U.S. Dept. Commerce, NOAA Tech. Memo. F/SPO-116. 181 pp.
Portman, M. 2009. Involving the public in the impact assessment of offshore renewable energy facilities. Marine Policy 33: 332–338.
Reddy, S., and J.P. Painuly. 2004. Diffusion of renewable energy technologies‚barriers and stakeholders‚ perspectives. Renewable Energy 29: 1431–1447.
Reed, M.S. 2008. Stakeholder participation for environmental management. Biological Conservation 141: 2417–2431.
Reed, M.S., A. Graves, N. Dandy, H. Posthumus, K. Hubacek, J. Morris, C. Prell, C.H. Quinn, and L.C. Stringer. 2009. Who's in and why? A typology of stakeholder analysis methods for natural resource management. Journal of Environmental Management 90: 1933–1949.
Richards, C., K.L. Blackstock, C.E Carter. 2004. Practical approaches to participation. SERG Policy Brief No. 1 Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Aberdeen.
Sharp, H. A. Finkelstein, and G. Galal. 1999. Stakeholder identification in the requirements engineering process. Proceedings of 10th international workshop on database & expert systems applications (DEXA): 387–391. IEEE Computer Society Press.
Strauss, A., and J. Corbin. 1990. Basics of qualitative research: grounded theory, procedures and techniques. Newbury Park: Sage.
Van Horn, C., D. Baumer, and W. Gormley. 2001. Politics and public policy, 3rd ed. Washington: Congressional Quarterly Press.
West, J., I. Bailey, and M. Winter. 2010. Renewable energy policy and public perceptions of renewable energy: a cultural theory approach. Energy Policy 38: 5739–5748.
Zoellner, J., P. Schweizer-Reis, and C. Wemheuer. 2008. Public acceptance of renewable energies: results from case studies in Germany. Energy Policy 36(11): 4136–4141.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation award EPS-0904155 to Maine EPSCoR Sustainability Solutions Initiative at the University of Maine and Department of Energy award EE0000298 to the University of Maine. The authors would like to acknowledge their community partners, Christopher Bartlett, of the Maine Sea Grant and University of Maine Cooperative Extension, and the Cobscook Bay Resource Center, for their contributions to the community interviews. The authors are also especially grateful for Mr. Barlett's continued support and assistance with the community meetings, focus groups, and other outreach efforts. Finally, the authors thank all of those who were interviewed and otherwise contributed to this research.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by Iris C. Anderson
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Johnson, T.R., Jansujwicz, J.S. & Zydlewski, G. Tidal Power Development in Maine: Stakeholder Identification and Perceptions of Engagement. Estuaries and Coasts 38 (Suppl 1), 266–278 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-013-9703-3
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-013-9703-3