Overcoming The Economic and Legal Barriers to Local Acceptance of Renewable Energy Projects
Open to Everyone
For proponents of renewable energy, there is a seeming paradox between the economic and environmental benefits of renewables and rising public opposition to their deployment. This article seeks to understand the reasons for this public discontent and to identify policies for addressing it. It will argue that renewable projects are distinguished by the low salience of their local benefits, which stem largely from increases in property taxes that are easily lost in local budgets.
With few visible benefits for local communities, the perceived costs of renewable development need not be high before communities conclude that a proposed project is not in their collective interest, or it sets a low bar for ideological opponents to block it.
