Building Community Support for Energy Infrastructure

Linhart PR developed and executed a comprehensive, multi-channel communications and community engagement program intended to build public understanding of and support for the project and to demonstrate to county commissioners that significant efforts were made to engage with residents and take feedback into account in order to mitigate impacts:

• Communications Toolkit: Linhart PR rebranded the project to more clearly convey the region-wide benefits and to signal a fresh start for community engagement. Then, Linhart PR developed a toolkit of internal and external communications resources, including key messages, FAQs, updated web copy, presentation decks and infographics, to better explain the project purpose and components, and the rationale for the proposed transmission line route.
• Community Meetings and Touchpoints: To further understand residents’ concerns and gather their feedback, Linhart PR coordinated “coffee talks” in Southern Colorado communities where the proposed route would run. Utility team members served coffee at local coffee shops and listened to feedback. Linhart PR also planned four community meetings, inviting residents near the proposed route to attend via postcard invites, targeted social media posts and ads in local newspapers. The utility hosted three science-fair style open houses and one telephone town hall to allow residents to chat with transmission planning experts, ask questions, review project information and share feedback, which the utility team used to make adjustments.
• Response Support: Engagement with residents continued outside the community touchpoints, and Linhart PR developed letters, emails and talking points to support the utility’s responses to difficult feedback or questions. This also included developing two opinion pieces for the local newspaper, to address commonly asked questions or misunderstood information.

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