More than tilting at windmills
Donald Zillman, Mary E. Walta, Iñigo del Guayo Castiella|September 19, 2011
INTRODUCTION
The beginning of the Obama Administration has given high visibility to renewable energy. Even in the face of the most troubling economic downturn since the Great Depression, candidate, and now President Obama, has kept energy at the top of his agenda. The modern emphasis on renewable sources of energy reflects worries over fossil fuel shortages, likely demand increases, political risk of overdependence on fossil fuel producing nations, and hazards of climate change caused by fossil fuel consumption.
One of the most prominent renewable energy sources is wind power. This article provides three perspectives on wind power and the legal issues that it raises. Part II provides an overview of the legal issues facing wind power development in the United States. Part III provides a case study of one modest-sized community wind project in northern Maine. Part IV provides a perspective from Spain-fictional home of the legendary windmill tilter, Don Quixote-and the European Union, home to some of the most significant wind power development in the world and a realm in which law has served as an incentive to major wind power development.
Through this article, we look at wind energy's potential role in moving the United States away from its addiction to foreign oil, as well as its rightful place in the long-standing debate over environmental issues related to use of fossil fuels. Our review of some, but by no means all, existing policies and laws that potentially impact the U.S. wind industry provides insight into what appears to be an obvious need for a more uniform and coordinated national approach to wind power production, if it is to become a viable alternative energy source. We examine, through our case study of one small wind project in Maine, the complexities that wind projects, both large and small, are likely to face. Last of all, we examine key European policies and laws related to wind energy and what lessons the United States might learn from them in short-cutting the road to successful wind production
