In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Holly Caggiano, an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia, and Sara Constantino, an assistant professor at Stanford University, about the preferences of local residents and elected officials for large-scale energy projects in Pennsylvania. Caggiano and Constantino discuss factors that influence public support for renewable energy projects and the occasional misalignment between the perceived preferences and actual preferences of constituents from the perspective of their local elected officials.

References and recommendations:

“Community benefits can build bipartisan support for large-scale energy infrastructure” by Holly Caggiano, Sara M. Constantino, Chris Greig, and Elke U. Weber; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-024-01585-9

“The People’s Republic of Valerie, Living Room Edition” by Kristen Kosmas; https://53rdstatepress.org/Kosmas-The-People-s-Republic-of-Valerie-Living-Room-Edition

“Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor” by Rob Nixon; https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674072343

“Long Problems: Climate Change and the Challenge of Governing Across Time” by Thomas Hale Jr.; https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691238128/long-problems

“The Overstory” by Richard Powers; https://www.richardpowers.net/the-overstory/

Climate & Community Institute reports; https://climateandcommunity.org/research/

Local Attitudes Toward Energy Projects, with Holly Caggiano and Sara Constantino

Resources Radio is a weekly podcast by Resources for the Future. Each week we talk to leading experts about climate change, electricity, ecosystems, and more, making the latest research accessible to everyone.