Breadth Abstract

There are three major components that one must consider with respect to an organization?s ability to wield an effective change campaign: 1) power structure, 2) public opinion, and 3) leadership.  The effective leader will understand and work these areas to the advantage of the mission. Reviewing ideas about power and agenda setting from Mills and Domhoff, successful public policy campaigns will have to consider how a policy might be perceived by higher strata people and whether they may work to subvert the campaign.  As noted in previous discussions, public opinion is essential to gaining momentum on issues and pushing political change. There are various ideas (pandering or shirking) of how much public opinion actually impacts policy, but there are some successful strategies that have been employed by organizations to gain power elite support by using public opinion.  Through incremental successes, engaging leadership and collaborations, organizations have built effective campaigns.  These points will be critical to reviewing current energy policy alternatives. 

Depth Abstract

Three specific potential obstacles should be considered with respect to changing public policy: power elites, public opinion, and effective leadership.  Those elements require an organization to have effective strategy that is flexible and the organization has to plan for contingencies (especially with respect to national level policy change).  Effective leadership will align strategic support in various sectors of the population to gain public support and find power elites that can help perpetuate (raise the salience for) the public interest. 

Public opinion is a matter of collective perception of issues and standards.  Perception of issues is as much a cultural aspect as how one feels connected to the issue.  A qualitative study about riparian buffer zones reveals that people with direct interest in changing may not realize their own impact upon the issue and may actually reject that idea in favor of a placing blame upon a so-called bigger entity (e.g. corporate elites, government or agricultural interests).  Some may not realize or want to realize actual risk of the issues, and some will not trust outside sources or power influences. 

Essentially, public perception can not be expected to change quickly, but rather perceptions can be changed through incremental efforts and a sense of urgency that allow for realization.  Proposed eventual scarcity of fuel may require more decisive action and less ignorance of the risks because there are mutual interests in loss of lifestyle and collective technological prowess. The challenge for good leadership is to find economic interests that can directly compete against status quo pursuits that may be paths to inevitable failure.  Doing this requires a strategic plan that engages networks across sectors and regions as well as effective leadership that can transcend community and social strata in order to bring real sustainable energy policy to a strong public interest. That public realization must occur well before actual scarcity is the driver of price rather than the current undemocratic cartel that are more interested in padding foreign treasuries than American interests. 

Application Abstract

The strategy for changing public perceptions via effective leadership is founded in the principles of power, public opinion, and effective leadership. Further, organizational efforts must understand the culture and common perceptions of issues, power, and leadership in order to effectively build a campaign (especially for a national campaign for sustainable energy).  In the demonstration here, a local market can provide valuable information about how to proceed with building a national coalition for sustainable behaviors.  The debates surrounding the energy initiatives (e.g. American Clean Energy Act of 2009) are founded in fundamental resistance to change.  People get that the current system is weighted toward the energy companies (especially oil), but people are willing to tolerate business as usual.  Meanwhile, we have supported dictatorships, seen rising costs, dwindling supply, aging technology, and other countries have built cutting edge technologies and engaged their populations in sustainable behaviors.  The problem with doing nothing substantially different than we are doing today is highly risky considering inevitable depletion will dramatically reverse any sense of affluence. 

The energy industry is multifaceted and has made money on the current policies and monopoly structure, and that power elite will resist changing the current profit formula.  If we continue to allow public opinion to be swayed by the profit motivated arguments of the status quo, we will continue to have aging infrastructure, reduction of available resources, a missed opportunity, and severe reduced ability to pay for future changes. As well, we easily forget our own participation in the processes.

The proposal here is to build a campaign to make meaningful change and legislation instead of relying upon a belief that the private sector will find the cure to what ails the system.  Today, we are importing over 70% of the oil we use thanks to status quo perceptions (Hansen, 2009; DOE, 2009; Pickens, 2008). The imports contribute to our huge trade and federal budget deficits (due to the subsidies and government support for the consumption and market structure).  Thus, the premise that the private sector will find a way is misguided at best.  We need a new direction instead of ignoring the real issues or of ignoring the hard sacrifices required.  Yet, there is a chance for us to profit in new ways that are mutually beneficial to the companies and the population if we move beyond consumption trends and blind feelings of affluence.

The saying, ?kicking the can down the road? is appropriate, and the people that can make the change are you and me.  One can not expect future generations to pick up the can (do the work) if that have only been examples of how to ?kick the can more? (avoid the real issue).  We know what needs to be done and we know the transition may not be easy.  Yet, we can not continue to push the issues to future generations or we will lose a great opportunity to invest in a bountiful future.

When we push the burden towards future generations, we miss the opportunity to be inventive and innovative in this generation.  At the same time, we hand our global competitors the crown of technological prowess.  Today, we can calculate what the costs are and provide a plan for them.  Today, we can creatively build technologies and processes that the rest of the world will need.

In the future, if we do not change our habits and perceptions today, those cost structures will not be flexible and the technology may no longer be ours to design. Further, procrastination and scarcity will force unpopular decisions against our economic security and our present affluence since foreign powers are competing for the same dwindling supply. We will be forced into abrupt changes and drastic costs (more than the oil crises of 1970s or prices in 2008) regardless of our means to address them at the time. 

The energy issues are not new today, but with leadership and collaborative effort, we can change social perceptions and public policy because we are running out of time to get sustainable energy and to reduce risky dependence upon foreign resources.  Absent of alternatives when the oil supply depletes, the today?s mobile economies will slow to a virtual crawl with slower transportation (along with a severe depression) (Hansen, 2009).  Thus, we must persuade the pubic, gain power elite support, and foster sustainable behaviors within the community while persuading legislators to seek sustainable energy policy rather than focus upon exploiting the dwindling limited supplies. 

We can not continue to ignore the facts unless we plan to fail, and we simply can not afford to miss this opportunity to do something great for our future. We have to change the cultural habits and consumption trends through a sustained effort that uses local people and local examples that people can relate.  Then we can gain power elite support and persuade legislators to pass real sustainable energy policy that encourages innovation, encourages conservation, and secures our economic future as well as lifestyles. Individually, we can review our own habits and see what we can do to consume less and be more productive with what we have.  For example, we can get energy audits for our homes, drive less aggressively, and unplug unused devices.  The status quo, however, is a path to great failure, but we can plan now and change now to build technology and techniques that propel economic growth and sustainable energy.