Law Commons^™

Harmonizing Distributed Energy And The Endangered Species Act, J. B. Ruhl

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

This Article explores ways of harmonizing distributed energy and the ESA, a goal consistent with the national policy for renewable energy conservation. Several legal practitioners and scholars have identified the ESA as a potentially significant constraint on the siting and operation of wind power facilities. The ESA has also been identified as a potential barrier to renewable energy in general, as solar power, biomass, and ocean tide and wave facilities could have their own sets of impacts triggering ESA regulation. But most of this attention has been devoted to utility-scale renewable energy, with distributed energy largely ignored or perhaps assumed …