Renewables are “located in” and “benefit” environmental justice neighborhoods

100% policies should explicitly prioritize Environmental Justice (EJ) communities. It is important for BIPOC and frontline communities to distinguish between renewable energy that is “located in” EJ communties, versus renewable energy sited far from an EJ community and still “benefits” that community. Advocates should determine their definition of “benefit,” which may include: ownership, business opportunity, control, direct bill savings, lease revenue, etc. The strong recommendation is to include renewable energy projects both “located in” and “benefiting” EJ communities (while recognizing that it is not always feasible to site all renewable energy within target communities) because it rectifies disproportionality of dirty energy impacts and structural inequities. The public health and economic goals of achieving 100% regenerative energy will only be achieved if renewables are located in and benefit BIPOC and frontline communities.

This issue typically becomes important in cases where larger community solar projects or utility-scale renewables are being considered. In the urban context, there may not be a rooftop that is large enough for a community solar project so the community may decide to site the community solar project in a neighboring city while still reaping the benefits of those electrons. In other cases—typically in the rural and Indigenous contexts—a large solar array in the desert may make more economic sense and a community may decide to approve that large solar array as long as the EJ community still receives the economic benefit of that solar. However, large solar arrays and large wind turbines have generated opposition (for example, in the Inland Valley in California, a sub-rural and desert area) due to their detrimental effects on the local environmenta and wildlife, and the build out of long and expensive transmission lines. The ideal scenario is to promote renewable energy that is both “located in” AND “benefiting” the local community.

In some cases, if done right, large-scale wind farms can balance solar seasonally, provide needed revenue to family farmers, and provide tax revenues to small rural communities and help save them from decline. For example, large scale wind farms pay taxes in Minnesota to local counties. Such taxes in areas with fossil fuel plants can help fund a Just Transition and provide new well-paying jobs.