Optinfra curates insightful research and coverage of the multi-disciplinary challenges constraining successful infrastructure development. Our goal is to identify challenges and thereby draw attention to the need and opportunity for innovative solutions.
We cover design, permitting and policy challenges with emphasis on the interrelationship between those issues and the environmental design, assessment and stakeholder engagement process intended to address those challenges.
Browse the links below for news and research on the challenges associated with environmental permitting, stakeholder engagement, and benefit sharing during infrastructure project design and development. Or narrow your search using keywords for sectors, states, themes of interest.
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Advocates argue for a level playing field between state and local benefit sharing requirements for renewable vs. fossil fuel energy projects. Read more…
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DOE’s new CITAP Program promises to increase efficiency of the environmental permitting process for transmission lines. But can more administrative meetings, timelines, and regulatory uncertainty overcome the risk of litigation, siting challenges, and construction delays? Read more…
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Anti-wind groups find fault with the BOEM’s Biological Opinion for the Atlantic Wind project; lawsuit alleges that the project will result in adverse impacts to North Atlantic Right Whales, while Dominion says the project will not be delayed and will follow NOAA-approved mitigation plans. Read more…
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A District judge reviews the Environmental Assessment for an oil and gas leasing program and reminds the BLM that it must “show its work and explain its reasoning.” The purpose of NEPA “is not to generate paperwork or litigation, but to provide for informed decision making and foster excellent action.” Read more…
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A review by the Niskanen Center finds 27% of a sample of 37 transmission line projects in the US faced opposition leading to project delays or cancellation. Conclusion? “There is no single solution to solve permitting challenges.” Read more…
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What to do when a project’s need contradicts state climate policy? Permits, lawsuits, and a project in limbo: the challenge before the D.C. Circuit Court. Read more…
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A review of infrastructure projects finds that negative stakeholder feedback is the most prominent reputational risk for G20 infrastructure projects. Read more…
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A journalist calls attention to ~$282 million worth of negotiated mitigation payments from offshore wind developers in New England. The most common beneficiaries? Community agreements with towns and direct support for fishers and aquariums. Read more…
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Hands tied, and a project still pending federal approval, Portsmouth Town Council agrees to a $23 million host community agreement with SouthCoast Wind Energy LLC. With only three weeks of public notice, the town agreed to a 33 year deal granting 2 miles of easement rights for an underground interconnection line to the offshore array 60 miles south of the Massachusetts state coastline. Read more…
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A Berkley Lab survey finds that renewable energy project cancellations average more than $2 million of sunk costs per project. The main reasons? Permitting delays caused by local ordinances and zoning, grid interconnection, and community opposition. Read more…
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Why coordination between Federal and State environmental reviews is so challenging. A think-tanks assesses the situation for new transmission lines in the Pacific North-West. Read more…
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What is the cost of NEPA‘s aging approach to infrastructure reviews? A thoughtful essay considers new research and policy options. Read more…
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New research in Massachusetts and Rhode Island estimates that the construction of utility-scale solar arrays decreases the value of homes within .6 miles by between 1.5% – 3.6%. Should home-owners be compensated the average value – amounting to between $4,721 and $11,330 – for that loss? Read more…
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Is local opposition a sufficient reason to deny a solar project permit? The Ohio Power Siting Board considers how to evaluate solar projects’ “public interest, convenience and necessity.” Read more…
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How does a project’s purpose and need relate to the need to evaluate environmental justice? Comments on FERC’s EJ Roundtable show that some stakeholders are unconvinced by the integrity of FERC’s NEPA process. Read more…
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Analyzing the response to DOE’s consent-based siting process: could maintaining trust, fairness, and the meaning of consent be more challenging than nuclear waste management? Read more…
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An academic literature review asks: What influence do renewable energy project developers, consultants, PR firms, and marketing companies have when projects face stakeholder opposition? A lot. So why does research seem exclusively focused on local residents? Read more…
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Op-ed describes an infrastructure duel between “untidy discretion and judgment” and “an ever-thickening web of regulations.” Read more…
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A look at why public interest groups, rather than disadvantaged, at-risk communities or property owners, account for 59 percent of NEPA litigation between 2001 and 2013. Read more…
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A summary of what we get from 30.4 million hours of ‘paperwork’ and $1.6 billion in annual costs required for infrastructure permitting. Read more…
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I’ll have the infrastructure with a side of American steel, cement, and equipment. One think-tank’s view of the anticipated effect of the “buy American” approach. Read more…
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Energy density, power density, and the challenge of renewable energy infrastructure siting. A Brookings Institution report on the cause and context for public opposition to renewable energy projects. Read more…
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Does public consultation affect the environmental impact assessment process under NEPA? New research finds little difference between the draft and final EIS among a sample of 47 projects. Read more…
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An in-depth look at the political economy of permitting and zoning, among other topics addressed by this wide ranging review. Read more…
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GAO says little is known about the costs and benefits of NEPA because data collection varies by agency. Read more…
More on Infrastructure Permitting Challenges
Optinfra follows a range of leading think tanks and research agencies. We are currently following themes related to stakeholder engagement, consultation and opposition (‘not-in-my-backyard – NIMBY), the environmental basis for opposition to infrastructure projects, the challenge and effectiveness of the NEPA process, and legal challenges to project design, development, permitting and implementation.
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