In 2003, the U.S. Department of Energy created regional joint governmentindustry
partnerships as part of a larger incentive to develop carbon dioxide capture and
storage (CCS) technologies to address the issue of climate change. As part of their
missions, DOE and their partners are responsible for creating and distributing public
outreach and education materials discussing climate change and CCS technologies.
In this dissertation, I sought to evaluate processes for communicating CCS to the
public by examining different pathways including direct communication through DOE
and regional partnership websites (Chapter I), news media from states with energy
projects proposed or underway (Chapter II), and alternative strategies for communication
such as an online educational game for youth (Chapter IV). My study also included
focus groups in communities where CCS technologies have been piloted to determine
public knowledge and acceptance of CCS (Chapter III). In Chapter I, a critique of DOE
and partnership websites, I found authority to be a dominant theme throughout DOE and
partnership website content, often incorporating technical jargon beyond laymen understanding and, in many cases, targeting industry audiences over the intended public.
In Chapter II, I analyzed newspaper articles from the states of Massachusetts, Minnesota,
Montana and Texas using Luhmann’s social theory and the SPEED framework to
determine how CCS has been framed by the media. Findings indicated that political,
legal, economic and technical frames dominated, with emphasis on benefits, rather than
risks of adoption. I also found that CCS reporting increased dramatically as pilot
projects started to come on line. In my study of community acceptance of CCS in the
American Southwest, Chapter III, I found that participants focused their conversations
on industry and government knowledge, risks and unknowns of CCS and processes for
decision-making. These topics also provided an impetus for caution. Skepticism and
distrust of government entities and corporations influenced participant willingness to
accept storage risks to mitigate for CO2 emissions. After open discussion of pros and
cons associated with the technology, however, participants were more willing to
consider CCS as an option, indicating a need to talk through the issue and to come to
their own conclusions. Finally, in focus groups used to evaluate of an online game titled
The Adventures of Carbon Bond, I found that it was difficult for participants to discuss
environmental issues with students that are viewed as contentious (i.e. climate change
and CCS), but that gaming was a valuable tool for addressing such sensitive subjects.
Overall, these four chapters demonstrate that communication of CCS has only
reached portions of the public and has not consistently connected with those potentially
impacted by the technology. They also show that CCS must overcome numerous
barriers to deployment, foremost of which is public acceptance.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2010-08-8187 |
| Date | 2010 August 1900 |
| Creators | Feldpausch-Parker, Andrea Marie |
| Contributors | Peterson, Tarla R. |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
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