Building Alliances with Resource Agencies and River Stakeholders Through a Negotiated Settlement

摘要

Settlement agreements have been used to preserve the value of hydro, to provide a mechanism for balancing the power and non-power aspects of hydro, and to take control of the licensing process. The negotiation process also can prove to be effective in building alliances among the participants. Wisconsin Electric (WE) recently completed two years of negotiation which resulted in a settlement agreement with the Wisconsin and Michigan Departments of Natural Resources, the Wisconsin Department of Administration, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and two river stakeholder organizations (the Michigan Hydro Relicensing Coalition and the River Alliance of Wisconsin). An unexpected result of this negotiation was the close alliance that formed among the participants in the negotiations. We are experiencing benefits that extend beyond the negotiations. Our challenge is to reinforce and expand this relationship. We will discuss how this alliance formed. We will also address how we are managing, reinforcing and expanding the alliance by using a team approach to the applicant-prepared environmental assessment and implementation of the settlement agreement.