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> If states fail to meet the targets by certain deadlines, the government will wave regulations on the minimum distance between residential areas and wind farms

• the8472 4y ago
  The incentive here is for them (or their local governments whom they lobbied on the minimum distance rules, which are quite excessive in some cases) to look for alternatives if they insist on NIMBY. It will only escalate if they don't meet goals and it is telegraphed in advance.
• onion2k 4y ago
  It's an incentive to accept wind farms in places where they can go within the regulations. Essentially it's a threat - if people reject wind farms far away from them, then they might end up with wind farms much closer.
  • sojournerc 4y ago
    Sounds like mob extortion. "It'd be a shame if we had to build a windmill in your backyard, so just support it over there, or else!"
    • mastax 4y ago
      It's extortion in the same way that "obey the law or go to prison" is extortion.
      • ekianjo 4y ago
        If the law is a moving goalpost that depends on the color of the sky, then yes, it's the textbook definition of extortion.
      • happyrock 4y ago
        Well, except that the excerpted line says they plan to waive the regulations (i.e. change the law) in the event of non-compliance...
        • scotty79 4y ago
          So? They are just excercising their democratically awarded power.
    • the8472 4y ago
      The expected value clearly is different. The mob primarily destroys and extracts and at most provides a token amount of real protection. The government provides advance warning for them to handle things on their own without further intervention and pursues a net-positive goal of reducing emissions and dependency on foreign fuels. It's not a threat, it's a statement of preferred outcomes with a "we truly prefer not to do this" fallback in case the preferred solution is not achieved on their own terms.
• wongarsu 4y ago
  People who hate wind farms have set minimum distance rules that rule out almost all places in their state. The new rules aligns incentives in two ways: - if resistance is too high on projects that meet the minimum distance rules then you instead get projects even closer to home - if minimum distance rules are set too restrictive they get waved entirely, so you are better off setting reasonable rules in the first place
• arrrg 4y ago
  We know about how much wind power we need and how much space is needed for that. Theoretically the federal government can define the regulation around the necessary distance of wind farms to where people live. However, the federal government gave that power to the states – which lead to some states creating very restrictive distance regulations, effectively making it impossible to build many wind farms and making it impossible to meet their targets that are needed for the energy transformation. This is the federal government giving the states fair warning that those targets are non-negotiable and that it’s the federal government who has the power to make overriding distance regulations. But, obviously, the preference is still for the states to figure this out on their own, depending on their own unique circumstances. If the federal government were to step in it‘s not as though the would build wind farms in people‘s backyards just to spite the states. They would then just define distance rules that would allow them to meet the wind farm targets. That‘s all.