Uma Outka (University of Kansas – School of Law) and Danielle Stokes (University of Richmond – School of Law) have posted Community Influence in Streamlined Siting Regimes on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Values central to energy justice are hard to reconcile with the urgency of energy transitions. This is certainly true (and nothing new) for expedited fossil energy projects which bring with them localized pollution. By contrast, accelerating renewable energy development and energy justice are aligned in basic ways, but they can still be in tension on both the policy and project scale. Building out clean energy or any new infrastructure quickly can be at odds with deliberative and inclusive local engagement with host communities. This tension is the central point of interest for this research. As a starting point, we compare recent reforms to support renewable energy development in four states—New York, Illinois, Michigan, and Massachusetts—all of which have, through law, committed to decarbonization as well as the justice dimensions of infrastructure siting to varying degrees. We assess whether their streamlined siting efforts can simultaneously advance the timetable for energy development and preserve a meaningfully influential place for community perspectives. Looking to substantive and procedural aspects of these reforms, we also review their early implementation for insight on the efficacy and local perceptions of these measures. Our core question: How well, if at all, have these states preserved space not just for local voices, but for community influence? This analysis has implications for broader debates about local influence in siting new energy infrastructure generally, as new gas and nuclear project proposals are also accelerating across the U.S.
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