Environmental and energy attorney Thomas J. Braun contributed an article to Bloomberg Law’s Environment and Energy Report titled “Three Key Energy Land Use Issues to Watch in 2021,” published December 18, 2020. The article discusses some key issues that will have a continuing impact on how public and private land is used to support renewable energy and infrastructure.
Braun looks at:
- Steps being taken by municipalities to remove barriers to and encourage the extensive development of infrastructure for charging electric vehicles.
- Efforts in some states to relax rules that provide tax incentives for continuing agricultural practices or exclude farmland from development areas, thus giving farmers opportunities to site solar projects on land that the rules had tied up or made off limits.
- Efforts in many states to find ways to facilitate the development of brownfields – previously developed properties that may contain a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant – or closed landfills for siting solar projects.