Localizing the Green Energy Revolution

The United States is on the verge of a new industrial revolution. Renewable energy could replace more than 60 percent of our current energy generation infrastructure in 15 years. This change is critical, yet it risks failure. The renewable generation already built in the United States consists primarily of large scale projects connected to transmission lines in rural areas. If the revolution continues on this trajectory, it is likely to encounter major obstacles. Many rural Americans—predominantly Republican—oppose Democratic policies, particularly climate policies. Even avowedly green liberal communities have mounted stiff opposition to renewable energy; residents often object to the blinking lights, landscape disruption, unsightly wires, and other impacts of these projects. And a rapid expansion of solar and wind farms built by large corporations in agricultural areas could perpetuate populist assertions that Democrats represent Wall Street, not common people. Beyond facing political opposition, a projected buildout of more than 200,000 miles of new transmission lines threatens to create negative infrastructural path dependence. This could be analogous to the federal highway network expansion of the 1950s, which largely cemented U.S. reliance on cars rather than mass transit and divided communities. The green energy revolution is a critical endeavor, but it need not take this path. Rather, it should place greater emphasis on small, more distributed energy in the form of rooftop and parking lot solar with battery storage, community scale renewables, and energy efficiency projects, such as weatherization of apartment buildings. This effort is likely to be more politically feasible than a revolution focused primarily on large scale projects. Rooftop solar, for example, tends to unite libertarians who favor energy independence and liberals who support green energy. And when targeted properly, small scale clean energy can reduce the crushing energy burdens faced by low-income communities. Large renewable projects and new transmission lines will be an essential part of the revolution, too. A move to net-zero carbon emissions will require every available tool. But for the transition to be feasible and less objectionable from a community and present-day environmental perspective, energy policies should also ensure that large scale renewable generation is built in ways that reduce host community impacts—siting projects on polluted or abandoned brownfields, as New York requires—or marginalized farmlands, and ensuring community benefits payments or similar arrangements.