RELDI

9 posts

Andrew Kieffer Joins the Sabin Center as Fellow for the Renewable Energy Legal Defense Initiative

Andrew Kieffer joined the Sabin Center in September 2025 as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Renewable Energy Legal Defense Initiative, which uses legal research and engagement to support siting utility- and community-scale renewable energy facilities and associated transmission and storage equipment. His work focuses on identifying legal pathways to challenge […]

Local Laws and Lawsuits Targeting Renewables Becoming More Prevalent in the US

While federal policy can have a significant impact on renewable energy development, local policy—and local sentiment—can be just as consequential. Between 2018-2023, at least 30% of utility-scale wind and solar projects were cancelled during the siting process, largely because of community opposition, local ordinances, and zoning. For the last five […]

Michigan Court of Appeals Considers Challenge to New Process for Siting Renewables

Over the last five years, several states, including New York (2020), California (2022), Illinois (2023), and Michigan (2023) have adopted comprehensive permitting reforms that curtail the power of local governments to block development of large-scale renewable energy projects. In two states, New York and Michigan, local governments have sued to […]

Ohio Approves Nation’s Largest Agrivoltaics Project, Finding It Will Serve the Public Interest

On March 21, 2024, state regulators in Ohio approved the Oak Run Solar Project, an 800-megawatt (MW) solar generation project that will include 300 MW of battery storage, as well as 4,000 acres of crops and 1,000 sheep on site. This blog post will highlight key features of the project, […]

Report Finds 228 Local Restrictions Against Siting Wind, Solar, and Other Renewables, as Well as 293 Contested Projects

Renewable energy projects have encountered significant opposition in at least 45 states.  In addition, at least 228 local laws, ordinances and policies have been enacted in 35 states to restrict renewable energy projects, according to a report, Opposition to Renewable Energy Facilities in the United States, issued on May 31 […]

Solar panels reduce CO2 emissions more per acre than trees – and much more than corn ethanol

On September 21, 2022, the New York Times published an essay by Gabriel Popkin titled “Are There Better Places to Put Large Solar Farms Than These Forests?” Popkin describes a recently approved 4,500-acre solar project in Virginia that will remove approximately 3,500 acres of forest and asks whether such projects […]