Renewable Energy Legal Defense Initiative

• Local Communities Challenge Michigan Renewable Energy Siting Law, CleanTechnica, November 30, 2024
• Michigan wants to fast-track renewable development. Local townships are suing, Grist, November 27, 2024
• NY Solar Summit Looks for Continued Momentum, RTO Insider, November 11, 2024
• Rebutting 33 False Claims About Solar, Wind, and Electric Vehicles - An Introduction, Skeptical Science, November 1, 2024
• The future of wind power relies in part on who wins the presidency, City & State New York, October 30, 2024
• A Midwestern Shot/Chaser for Renewables, Heatmap Plus, October 23, 2024
• Under a Texas sun, agrivoltaics offer farmers a new way to make money, Washington Post, September 24, 2024
• In boosting clean energy in Minnesota, Walz lays foundation for climate influence if Harris wins, Associated Press, August 25, 2024
• Midwestern Farmers Who Say Yes to Solar Power Face Neighbors’ Wrath, Bloomberg, August 1, 2024
• Wind farms’ benefits to communities can be slow or complex, leading to opposition and misinformation, Associated Press, July 25, 2024
• How state legislation led the banning of big wind and solar projects in a fourth of Ohio’s counties, Cleveland.com, July 13, 2024
• Fear-Based Myths About Clean Energy Could Make Americans Poorer And Sicker, Forbes, July 7, 2024
• How the Inflation Reduction Act is playing out in one of the ‘most biased’ states for renewables, Floodlight News, June 24, 2024
• Amid intense heatwave, US depending on fossil fuel to cool down, RTE, June 23, 2024
• Report debunks 33 false claims about renewable energy, CNN, June 17, 2024
• Florida's anti-climate law won't slow renewables growth, Financial Times, June 13, 2024
• Will climate facts or climate myths determine our future, Forbes, June 12, 2024
• As solar power surges, U.S. wind is in trouble, N.Y. Times, June 4, 2024
• Why Florida’s wind turbine ban is ‘symbolic,’ Pluribus News, May 31, 2024
• An epic battle over 1 mile of land in Wisconsin is tearing environmentalists apart, Mother Jones, May 9, 2024
• Debunking false claims about solar, wind, and electric vehicles, WLFA, Apr. 25, 2024
• Columbia Law report rebuts 33 ‘most pervasive false claims’ about solar, wind, EVs, Utility Dive, Apr. 8, 2024
• Ohio landowners say solar opposition groups threaten their property rights, Energy News Network, Mar. 21, 2024
• Climate-Science Deniers, Right-Wing Think Tanks, and Fossil Fuel Shills Are Plotting Against the Clean Energy Transition, Sierra, Mar. 12, 2024
• Minnesota Eyes Permitting Reform for Clean Energy Amid Gridlock in Congress, Inside Climate News, Mar. 11, 2024
• What’s slowing down America’s clean energy transition? It’s not the cost, Al Jazeera, Mar. 7, 2024
• Some Midwest states take power to ban wind and solar projects away from local communities, Harvest Public Media, Feb. 12, 2024.
• Local governments block green energy: Here’s how USA TODAY measured the limits nationwide, USA TODAY, Feb. 4, 2024.
• Across America, clean energy plants are being banned faster than they’re being built. USA TODAY, Feb. 4, 2024.

• Legislature OKs final bills giving state regulators authority over renewable energy permits, Michigan Advance, Nov. 8, 2023.
• Myths about solar and wind could stall the fight against climate change, Vital Signs, EDF, Oct. 20, 2023.
• In Michigan, not-so-sunny prospects for solar farms, Grist, Oct. 2, 2023.
• Report documents local backlash against renewable energy, E&E EnergyWire, July 20, 2023.
• Arrival of large-scale solar projects in Nebraska met with resistance, Flatwater Free Press, June 29, 2023.
• In some fights over solar, it's environmentalist vs. environmentalist, Louisville Public Media, June 18, 2023
• Opposition to Renewable Energy Facilities in the United States/50-State Survey of Siting Restrictions, JD Supra, June 15, 2023
• Why the pushback against more renewable energy infrastructures?, NPR, June 14, 2023
• Permission to Build, The New York Times Newsletter, June 13, 2023
• Hundreds of US localities restrict renewables siting, with 293 projects currently contested: Columbia report, Utility Dive, June 5, 2023
• The debt-limit deal could help clean energy. But probably not much, L.A. Times, June 1, 2023
• Across the Country, a Big Backlash to New Renewables Is Mounting, News from the States, Feb. 14, 2023
• US: Anti-Renewable Groups Target Whale Deaths, Deutsche Welle, Mar. 6, 2023
• Why 23 Dead Whales Have Washed Up on the East Coast Since December, New York Times, Feb. 28, 2023
• An activist group is spreading misinformation to stop solar projects in rural America, NPR.com, Feb 18, 2023 (radio version for March 16, 2023 All Things Considered linked here)

• Accelerating renewable energy buildout faces big hurdles, even with Inflation Reduction Act: developers, Utility Dive, September 6, 2022
• The Senate has a climate deal. Now comes the hard part, The Los Angeles Times, August 5, 2022
• Hamptons Opponents Hound Offshore Wind-Power Project, Wall Street Journal, Apr. 16, 2022
• As utility-scale renewables expand, some Midwest farmers are pushing back, Grist, Apr. 11, 2022
• Special Report: U.S. solar expansion stalled by rural land-use protests, Reuters, Apr. 7, 2022
• How an Electric Truck Factory Became a Lightning Rod in Georgia, New York Times, March 14, 2022

• Power companies' plans to expand wind and solar on the Eastern Plains meet local headwinds, CPR News, October 21, 2021
• Biden clean energy plan faces permitting 'choke point', E&E News, June 8, 2021
• Solar Power or Open Space? North Livermore Project Reveals California's Green Fault Lines, Bay Nature, May 6, 2021
• Local renewable fights threaten 100% clean power -- analysts, E&E News, March 10, 2021
• The Shift to Renewable Energy Can Give More Power to the People by Bill McKibben, The New Yorker, March 4, 2021
• The Wild Ways Local Governments are Blocking Renewables Energy, Gizmodo, February 25, 2021

• Lawyers take a stand for renewable energy, Yale Climate Connections, January 9, 2020
• LAW: Big firms become climate advocates, E&E News, January 7, 2020

• Pro Bono Legal Team Helps Farmers and Homeowners Fight for Renewable Energy, State of the Planet, August 22, 2019
• Lawyers embracing the good fight for solar power, PV Magazine, July 8, 2019
• Dee-fense! Sallan Foundation, June 1, 2019

Client: Friends of Flint Mine Solar

Description: The Flint Mine Solar project is a 100-megawatt solar photovoltaic facility proposed to be located in the towns of Coxsackie and Athens, New York. Friends of Flint Mine is a group of local farmers, landowners and residents who believe the solar project will benefit their community. In 2019 RELDI represented Friends of Flint Mine in challenging the Town of Coxsackie's ban on solar projects in residential and agricultural zones. Although the Superior Court ruled in favor of the town, the Flint Mine Solar Project could still be approved through the New York State process for siting energy projects. RELDI then represented the Friends in the statewide process before the New York State Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment, which empowers the state to override local zoning restrictions.

Status: On August 4, 2021, the Siting Board granted a certificate for the Flint Mine Solar Project, overriding Coxsackie's restrictive solar law.

Clients: Friends of Flint Mine Solar, Win With Wind, Carrie and William McCausland, Scott and Donna Griffin, Kenneth Roberts, Karol Toole, and John Ohol.

Description: In 2020, New York enacted the Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act, which created a new Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES). Pursuant to the statute, ORES developed a streamlined process for siting renewable energy facilities and issued regulations in March 2021. In June 2021, a number of local towns and advocacy groups sued ORES and the state to challenge the statute and the regulations. See Town Of Copake vs. NYS Renewable Energy, Index No. 905502-21 (Sup. Ct., Albany Cnty.). On September 3, RELDI filed an amicus brief in support of the State. On October 7, 2021, the court issued a decision dismissing the lawsuit against the New York State Office of Renewable Energy Siting. On November 5, 2021, the plaintiffs appealed. On December 2, 2022, RELDI submitted an amicus brief in the state appellate court.

Status: On May 18, 2023, the state appellate court issued a favorable decision upholding the regulations, as described here.

Client: Ovid Township Landowners

Description: The Board of Ovid Township, Michigan, was considering adopting a solar energy ordinance that would have significantly restricted solar energy development. RELDI assisted in writing a letter to the Board on behalf of fourteen local landowners who support solar energy. The letter noted the proposed ordinance's legal vulnerabilities and inconsistencies with public policy, and urged the Board to reject the ordinance. RELDI is grateful to our local colleagues Professor Jacqueline Hand and Professor Nick Schroeck of the University of Detroit Mercy.

Status: The Board adopted a less restrictive ordinance that will allow solar energy projects to go forward.

Client: Win with Wind

Description: The South Fork Wind Farm project will include 15 turbines stationed 35 miles off the coast of Long Island and is expected to produce 130 megawatts of energy. Win with Wind is a group of South Fork residents who support the project because they wish to see their community become a clean energy leader. From 2019 to 2021, RELDI acted as legal counsel to Win with Wind in the New York Public Service Public Service Commission proceeding regarding one piece of the project, a submarine transmission cable that will bring the electricity from the wind turbines to a landing site onshore. While the Public Service Commission proceeding was pending, project opponent Citizens for the Preservation of Wainscott sued the Town of East Hampton in state supreme court to challenge the town’s decision to grant the developer an easement. RELDI filed an amicus brief on behalf of Wind with Wind.

Status: On March 18, 2021, the Public Service Commission approved the cable. The Public Service Commission subsequently approved South Fork Wind's environmental management and construction plan and issued a water quality certification for the export cable. On February 24, 2022, the New York Supreme Court, Suffolk County, dismissed Citizens for the Preservation of Wainscott's petition challenging East Hampton's decision to grant South Fork Wind an easement for their transmission cable.

Client: Citizens for Agricultural Rights and Renewable Energy

Description: Citizens for Agricultural Rights and Renewable Energy (CARRE) is a community group in Madison County, Iowa, that supports wind energy because of its environmental and economic benefits. RELDI wrote a letter to the Madison County Board of Supervisors on behalf of CARRE advocating for a wind energy ordinance that would allow for sensible siting of wind turbines. RELDI also filed an amicus brief on behalf of CARRE to support Madison County's approval of a 250-megawatt wind farm in a lawsuit brought by opponents of the project. Madison County Coalition for Scenic Preservation v. Zoning Board of Adjustment of Madison County (Iowa Court of Appeals). RELDI is grateful for the support of our local colleagues the Iowa Environmental Council and Channing Dutton of Lawyer, Lawyer, Dutton & Drake. 

Status: On January 21, 2021, the Iowa Court of Appeals affirmed Madison County's decision to permit the wind farm.

Read the report, Rebutting 33 False Claims About Solar, Wind, and Electric Vehicles, at Columbia Law School's Scholarship Archive.

This resource bank provides a list of articles and reports about the impacts of wind and solar energy projects.

This database catalogues publicly available CBAs from renewable energy projects and other types of projects, and this report identifies best practices for negotiating and drafting CBAs.