Public Authorities and Energy Decision Processes: Building Public Confidence, Workshop Report

Abstract

This paper outlines possible avenues for increasing public trust and confidence in the actions of public authorities responsible for deciding and advising on energy. Jurisdictionally competent public authorities must be the ultimate decision-makers in any society governed by the rule of law. But recent debates have implied a role for other actors as, somehow, the actual granters of permission, the results of which are potentially (and very often in experience) incoherent, fundamentally undemocratic, outside any rule of law construct and, finally, inimical to the public interest.