The Politics of Siting Energy Infrastructure (David Spence, University of Texas School of Law and McCombs School of Business)

“In a green transition we are going to build a lot of stuff-wind, solar, and associated transmission lines. As these siting conflicts have become more contentious the creative use of legal leverage is creating precedents in fossil fuel cases that will come back to bite us in the siting of green infrastructure. ”

“Local NGOs were much more likely than national NGOs to engage in opposition based on health risk claims that were hyperbolic or unsupported by the scientific literature. There is a logic to this difference.”

“National NGOs are going to have to get more comfortable with championing particular clean energy projects, even over the opposition of local NGOs.  That is culturally difficult for them to do.”

Professor David Spence is Baker Botts Chair in Law at the University of Texas School of Law, and Professor of Business Government & Society at the McCombs School of Business. Professor Spence’s research focuses on the law and politics of energy regulation, broadly defined. His scholarly writings address the environmental regulation of the oil and gas industry and the electric utility industry, as well as economic regulation (regulation of price and competition) in the public utility industry. He has Ph.D in political science from Duke University and a J.D. from the University of North Carolina.