Deals in the Heartland: Renewable Energy Projects, Local Resistance, and How Law Can Help

74 Pages Posted: 6 Apr 2022 Last revised: 16 Jun 2023

See all articles by Christiana Ochoa

Christiana Ochoa

Indiana University Maurer School of Law

Kacey Cook

Indiana University Bloomington, Maurer School of Law

Hanna Weil

University of Minnesota Law School

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: 2022

Abstract

Informed by original empirical research conducted in the Midwestern United States, this Article provides a rich and textured understanding of the rapidly emerging opposition to renewable energy projects. Beyond the Article’s urgent practical contributions, it also examines the importance of formalism and formality in contracts and complicates current understandings.

Rural communities in every windblown and sun-drenched region of the United States are enmeshed in legal, political, and social conflicts related to the country’s rapid transition to renewable energy. Organized local opposition has foreclosed millions of acres from renewable energy development, impeding national and state-level commitments to achieving renewable energy targets in the face of the mounting climate crisis. This Article analyzes why and how communities, using county ordinances, township regulations, and electoral processes, mobilize against renewable energy companies and repel commercial wind projects. It describes the surprising and complex interplay of national, state, and municipal law governing the transition to renewable energy, and provides tangible reform proposals that can address this emerging policy crisis.

This Article also advances theoretical understandings of contractual governance and contractual relations, as well as the role of informal law and institutions in tight-knit communities. The field work at the heart of this Article provides evidence that the importance of government in contracts is currently underappreciated. This is particularly so in the context of the transition to renewable energy, where national and state governments have articulated ambitious policy objectives. Governments can add value to the deals between companies and communities, by incentivizing the deals ex ante and by stabilizing the resulting legal relationships ex post. The Article thus concludes that the trend restricting governmental presence in contracts also limits governments’ ability to achieve articulated public goals. The Article also illustrates the importance of contract formality, especially in tight-knit communities. In such local contexts, transparent, clearly articulated deals and deal-making can inspire trust, serving as the pivot point in local decisions about whether to allow renewable energy projects. Because formality opens possibilities for durable relationships in tight-knit communities it can serve as a catalyst for renewable energy projects in America’s heartland.

Keywords: wind energy, renewable energy, climate crisis, wind farm, contracts, Free Prior Informed Consent, FPIC, development, Mid-West, Zoning, economic agreements, rural communities, formalism, informal institutions, rural communities, social upheaval, local law, law in action

JEL Classification: K32, K12

Suggested Citation

Ochoa, Christiana and Cook, Kacey and Weil, Hanna, Deals in the Heartland: Renewable Energy Projects, Local Resistance, and How Law Can Help (2022). 107 Minnesota Law Review 1055 (2023) , Indiana Legal Studies Research Paper No. 479, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4061042

Christiana Ochoa (Contact Author)

Indiana University Maurer School of Law ( email )

211 S. Indiana Avenue
Bloomington, IN 47405
United States
812-856-1516 (Phone)
812-855-0555 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://law.indiana.edu/directory/cochoa.asp

Kacey Cook

Indiana University Bloomington, Maurer School of Law ( email )

Bloomington, IN
United States

Hanna Weil

University of Minnesota Law School ( email )

United States

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