Community Benefits and Alternative Energy Infrastructure Siting

This essay studies the increasing use of community benefits frameworks in the siting of alternative energy infrastructure. It begins with a discussion of the community benefits agreement movement, the types of agreements that fall under the community benefits agreement frame, as well as the use of community benefits agreements at local law, and in different geographic contexts. Next, it introduces the increasing use of community benefits legal tools in the context of wind energy infrastructure siting. The second part of this essay presents an example of an agreement to share community benefits particularly in the context of federal subsidies through the U.S. Department of Energy.

Additional various efforts to share community benefits in wind energy infrastructure installation are analyzed based on two additional datasets of community benefits agreements. In particular, the essay addresses features—such as raising public discourse about projects, and creating an auction-like process—and challenges—such as increasing costs that may be passed on to ratepayers from the use of community benefits tools. Finally, the essay considers what other legal steps governments might take to ensure the public and private actors are fairly treated when the government extends subsidies for wind energy infrastructure creation.