CHAPTER 3 GOVERNMENT RELATIONS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS AS RELATED TO PERMITTING
| Jurisdiction | United States |
(Mar 1981)
GOVERNMENT RELATIONS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS AS RELATED TO PERMITTING
Atlantic Richfield Company
Denver, Colorado
INTRODUCTION
Mineral Resources Permitting. The Newsletter stated that "the program is designed to cover siting and subsequent techniques and problems encountered in exploration, development and production of mineral resources." The techniques are beyond my grasp and the problems are too numerous for a two day institute; fortunately, my assigned task is to discuss the necessity of governmental and public relations.
Let me put your minds at ease: Government and public relations are necessary. Had I said otherwise, I would have to explain to the Atlantic Richfield Company management just what my colleagues (and myself) in the Public Affairs Department have been doing.
Rather than attempting to justify our existence, I have decided to discuss some of the problems we face in the Mountain West and give some illustrations of attempts to meet them, and then to digress into a somewhat broader view of some areas I feel require more attention than they are presently receiving. Matters relating to ecology I have chosen to ignore.
The glaring lack of footnotes and authorities should set this paper apart from the other contributions to this program. I note that with the exception of Mr. Duerkson, Senior Associate, Conservation Foundation, all others who are presenting papers are identified as attorneys. (Intuition tells me that he, too, is an attorney.)
PR AND GR ACUTELY AWARE
Ronald Reagan gave an address to the Public Affairs Council entitled "Business and Government in the 1980's." Here are four quotes I have extracted:
...both business and government will have to lay aside old hostilities (in) a new spirit of cooperation and shared responsibility.
...we must re-examine many of the ways our government operates. Business men and women can help in this process.
'Consensus-building' is a term you will hear often in the next several years.
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We must not start with the assumption, as some...have in the past, that business men and women have ulterior motives.
The part I liked best is where he stated:
The public affairs profession is perhaps the one most acutely aware of the responsibility business and industry have to our society as a whole.
He then went on to say:
As the daily link between the private sector and government, the corporate public affairs office will play an essential role in this challenging decade. It must be the interpreter of business's ideas, goals, problems and plans to government and at the same time must communicate and interpret government's thinking to business.
That is a major responsibility in a society as complex as ours. But the public affairs discipline has become increasingly sophisticated in recent years and I believe it will rise to the occasion, with many others, to work for a prosperous and secure future for all our people.
INDUSTRIAL SITING COUNCIL
You have all encountered some version of a state industrial siting council with broad authority. Companies are required to secure a construction permit from the council before undertaking construction of a proposed facility. The council utilizes its authority to require the permit seeker to demonstrate plans and programs to alleviate growth problems (impact) in surrounding communities.
In Wyoming's recent legislative session there was a bill to increase the jurisdiction of the state's Industrial Siting Act to include gas processing plants. This was one of the governor's major projects for the session. A leading senator and opponent of the measure stated, "In my opinion the people behind this are trying to give jurisdiction to the Industrial Siting Council for every kind of industrial development." He assailed the move as a delaying tactic to be used to blackmail the companies for front-end money.
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IMPACT
In years past I had the experience of working for a reasonably competent mineral lawyer who, prior to being called to the bar, had been a newspaperman. He has a good command of language, has had extensive public relations and government relations experience and has long been active in this organization. His advice to me relative to this presentation: Don't attempt to tell the audience what to do — try to maintain their interest by pointing out problems and questions. The audience is confident they have solutions and answers. If you must be specific, define items using dictionary definitions, then if someone questions you, you can tell them their argument is with the dictionary.
Following that advice I will now define "impact."
Impact: (a) an impinging or striking especially of one body against another, (b) a forceful contact, collision, or onset, also an impelling or compelling effect. An illustration: "The impact of modern science on our society."
Under definition number two,
of or relating to an area (as a school district) inhabited by a large number of employees of the federal government.
I had forgotten that for years the federal government had been making generous payments to school districts impacted by its employees or the employees of its contractors. What sort of a precedent this is, if any, I can't say — but you may be sure that school administrators are familiar with these payments even though their school may never have received them.
The definition of impact given here is really of no help — each of you will have to learn precisely what is meant when governmental people use the word in describing the results of what your company is doing or proposing to do to their domain.
EXTORTION
A colleague from another company regularly refers to the permitting process as an exercise in extortion. This distresses me. I can't bring myself to this...
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