Local opposition to clean energy projects slows the transition to a low carbon energy system. A legal expert explores how a national policy of “repurposed energy” could speed things up.

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Clean energy infrastructure projects often face opposition from communities where they would be built, a fact that stands in the way of efforts to rapidly lower energy-sector carbon emissions. 

Alexandra Klass, a professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School, explores how “repurposed energy”, which directs clean energy projects to abandoned fossil fuel sites and marginal agricultural lands, can effectively counter local opposition and accelerate clean energy development.  She also discusses key provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that support the development of clean energy in legacy energy communities, and offers recommendations for policy to support repurposed energy nationwide.

Alexandra Klass is the James G. Degnan professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School, and a visiting scholar at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.  Her recent work has focused on repurposed energy and policy recommendations to make it reality. 

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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu