Is “Green” Energy Bad for the Environment? Renewable Energy Generation and Wildlife Conservation in the United States

Abstract

Efforts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases in the United States focus in significant part on increasing generation of renewable energy. However, utility scale renewable energy generation facilities can themselves have significant environmental impacts, particularly on wildlife and wildlife habitat. These adverse effects include mortality of birds and bats caused by operations of wind turbines, alteration of aquatic ecosystems by hydroelectric dams, habitat destruction by large-scale solar projects, and harm to marine organisms and potentially even fishing due to tidal and wave energy installations. Federal laws protecting birds and endangered species, as well as environmental impact assessment requirements applicable to federal agency actions and approvals, have already affected approval and operation of renewable energy facilities. Particularly since these statutes include citizen suit provisions that allow any interested party to enforce them in court, laws enacted decades ago will continue to play a key role in future efforts in the United States to balance increasing generation of renewable energy with maintaining and restoring the country’s biodiversity resources.