Clean Energy Projects Can Overcome Barriers with Community Benefits Frameworks

The U.S. needs a lot more clean energy, and it needs it fast.

If done well, clean energy projects can result in a number of benefits — new job opportunities, improved air quality and public health, cheaper electricity bills and so much more. However, even before recent political challenges in the U.S., renewable energy projects like offshore wind turbines or solar fields have faced increasing local opposition, oftentimes delaying deployment and running up costs. Virtually every U.S. state now has at least one local law restricting renewable energy development.

The pushback is understandable: Energy projects have a long history of inequity in the U.S., with communities of color, low-income neighborhoods and other marginalized groups often being disproportionately affected by pollution and other problems.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

One promising way to ensure that communities benefit from the boom of clean energy deployment while also overcoming tensions with developers is through community benefits frameworks. These formalized agreements — which can vary in legal enforceability and scope — can offer communities a voice in project development, along with tangible benefits, such as long-term financial investments in the community, job creation and other social or economic improvements. Through cooperation with local communities, developers benefit from less opposition and faster siting and development.

Community benefits frameworks are not a silver bullet for achieving equity or accelerating project development. But they ensure that communities’ concerns are heard and that projects bring meaningful benefits to residents.

In this article, we examine four examples of clean energy infrastructure projects — a critical minerals mining development, an offshore wind farm, a carbon dioxide (CO2) pipeline and an electric bus manufacturing plant — in which community benefits frameworks helped move projects forward by fostering trust, creating accountability and ensuring local voices were heard.

Creating a Safer Community During Mine Expansion in Montana

When the Stillwater Mining Company (now known as Sibanye-Stillwater) proposed expanding its mining of palladium and platinum — two critical minerals used in low-emissions technologies — in rural Montana in the 1990s, three local environmental organizations campaigned against it. The Northern Plains Resource Council, Cottonwood Resource Council and Stillwater Protective Association, collectively known as “the Councils,” also launched lawsuits to try to stop the project. They feared the expansion would pollute local watersheds, deplete resources and contribute to public health risks like arsenic and lead poisoning.

But after recognizing that litigation would be both costly and challenging, the Councils proposed entering into a good neighbor agreement with Stillwater Mining. Good neighbor agreements are entered into voluntarily but act as legally binding contracts between a business and a neighboring community.

The closed-door negotiations took over a year, but they resulted in tangible benefits for the local communities. For example, the mining company agreed to water quality monitoring and protection measures, regular environmental audits and conservation programs for land and wildlife to address citizens’ concerns about the mines’ potential impacts.

Local organizations had worried that increased traffic from mining activity would impact the rural character of their community, so they negotiated a provision obligating Stillwater to bus workers into their mines to reduce vehicle traffic and air pollution. Stillwater compensated the Councils for legal advisors, technical consultants, as well as negotiator training, offering them greater negotiating leverage.

The agreement also provided the Councils with significant oversight over the mining company’s operations. Oversight committees with representation from both the Councils and Stillwater meet three times a year to monitor the agreement’s implementation and address new issues as they come up.

The agreement’s provisions on continued community engagement have earned its reputation as the “Cadillac” of good neighbor agreements.  A central reason is that the agreement applies directly to the mines, independent of their owners. If the mines are sold, the agreement will continue to be upheld by whoever owns the mines over their lifetimes.

Since the agreement was signed in 2000, it’s been amended six times to resolve unexpected issues and address new concerns. Furthermore, there has been no arbitration or litigation, reflecting its effectiveness, flexibility and dispute resolution mechanisms. One of the agreement’s participants said: “When you’re sitting at the table with somebody for 20 years, you develop a relationship with them and you also develop credibility from both sides, and you can take each other on as equals.” 

Reducing Energy Costs, Increasing Internet Access for Block Island

In 2009, the state of Rhode Island selected Deepwater Wind, a Rhode Island-based company, to develop the first U.S. offshore wind farm near Block Island. Deepwater Wind engaged with the town of New Shoreham on Block Island to create a community benefits agreement and win the town council’s support of the project.

The developer’s ability to forge strong ties with the New Shoreham community was key to the success of Deepwater Wind’s Block Island Wind Farm. Early on, Deepwater Wind hired a highly respected local resident to act as a full-time community liaison between the developer and the town. This liaison simultaneously helped to socialize the economic and environmental benefits of the project, while also helping Deepwater Wind identify the town’s unique internet and electricity infrastructure needs. Another channel for community engagement came through Rhode Island’s Special Area Management Plan which allows the public to provide recommendations for the siting of offshore wind. It sought to balance the protection and development of the state’s ocean resources and created a unique opportunity for proactive engagement between the state’s Coastal Resources Management Council, the developer and the public.

Ultimately, Deepwater Wind agreed to provide various tangible benefits to New Shoreham. It devoted $2.5 million to construct a fiber optic internet cable connection, reducing the island’s energy costs and air pollution by replacing diesel generators with power from the newly constructed wind farm. It also donated $2.5 million to local historical and tourism organizations and hired third-party consultants to provide environmental impact studies. Notably, with these community engagement efforts and guarantees for tangible benefits, Deepwater Wind avoided litigation and permitting problems, beginning operations in 2016.

Despite the community’s initial concerns about the wind farm’s potential impacts on fishing and bird life, community members are reportedly pleased with the outcomes of both the project and the community benefits agreement nearly 10 years later. One fisherman stated that the offshore turbines have created artificial reefs to support fish populations while another resident shared there had been negligible impacts on bird migration patterns from the turbines. Another resident praised the reduction of air and noise pollution from replacing the island’s diesel generators with wind power, which avoids 40,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year. Just 10% of the power generated from the turbines is needed to power the entire island’s electricity consumption, with the rest moved onshore.

Community Engagement Builds Local Trust in Pipeline Development

In 2022, Tallgrass, an energy infrastructure company, announced its intention to convert its Trailblazer natural gas pipeline, spanning 392 miles from Nebraska to Wyoming, into a CO2 transport pipeline for carbon sequestration. Tallgrass then began engaging communities along the pipeline route — holding more than 1,000 stakeholder engagements in 2023 and 2024, as well as over a dozen community roundtables and eight open houses — to hear their concerns about the risk of pipeline ruptures or the possible use of eminent domain.

Bold Alliance, an organization focused on partnership building for environmental protection, soon approached Tallgrass and proposed negotiating a community benefits agreement in 2023. Tallgrass agreed and eventually signed the agreement, which was also endorsed by 11 other Nebraska-based community organizations.

One person involved in the process underscored the importance of the company acting in good faith with the community, even before they entered the agreement: “I think it was really refreshing for [the community] to see an infrastructure company, after some of their other experiences, that would come in and say, ‘I know that this bothered you and we’re going to address it in writing and make sure it doesn’t happen again’.”

The community benefits agreement includes a variety of benefits including landowner protections, public safety and community investment. For example, Tallgrass agreed to offer landowners the option to choose between an up-front lump-sum payment or an annually recurring payment for the use of their land, established a 10-year royalty program for landowners — paying them 10 cents per metric ton of CO2 sequestered through the pipeline — and included a provision for decommissioning the pipeline at the end of the project’s life.

In addition, Tallgrass agreed to provide $400,000 to equip and $200,000 to train first responders on CO2 pipeline incident response and donated $500,000 to a community fund to support counties located along the pipeline. And, as a testament to these engagement efforts, in February 2025 Tallgrass secured 100% of the project’s access to build without the use of eminent domain.

The community benefits agreement also gave Bold Alliance the authority to respond to any violations of the agreement. Since the agreement was signed in 2024 and the pipeline is expected to begin operating in late 2025, it is too early to evaluate its implementation.

Compared to other Midwestern CO2 pipeline projects that have been scuttled by litigation, local opposition and permit denials, Tallgrass’ Trailblazer pipeline project proceeded with relative ease. While some of the reduced community opposition could be because the project entails converting an existing pipeline rather than constructing a new one, Tallgrass’ early engagement with key stakeholders, enhanced by the involvement of Bold Alliance — a trusted community partner —  has served Tallgrass well so far.

Creating Equitable Jobs in Bus Manufacturing Plants

To build electric bus manufacturing facilities in Ontario, Calif., and Anniston, Ala., New Flyer, a bus manufacturer based in Canada, entered into a community benefits agreement with the nonprofit organizations Jobs to Move America (JMA) and Greater Birmingham Ministries, engaging alongside a coalition of around 25 other organizations (referred to collectively as “the Coalition”).

Initially, JMA sued New Flyer in 2019 alleging the company had failed to pay its workers as agreed in a deal New Flyer made with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. New Flyer settled JMA’s lawsuit for $7 million, while denying the allegations and agreed to negotiate a community benefits agreement covering its factories in Alabama and California to address locally relevant concerns of racial discrimination and fair labor practices.

Through the community benefits agreement, the Coalition established several workforce benefits. New Flyer must select 45% of new hires and 20% of promotions at each plant from groups that have been historically disadvantaged in the communities in which it operated, develop a pre-apprenticeship program to train new workers with preferential entry for disadvantaged groups, establish an anonymous reporting system for harassment and discrimination, and conduct semi-annual workplace safety training sessions at each plant.

The community benefits agreement also requires New Flyer to track its hiring and promotion efforts and disclose the data to the Coalition and JMA, which is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the agreement. Furthermore, the agreement includes explicit dispute resolution procedures.

While the Ontario facility has since shut down, New Flyer has successfully increased its hiring and promotion of workers from historically disadvantaged groups in its Anniston facility. A separate union agreement was also produced from the engagement process, which has had positive ripple effects for workers at the Anniston facility. A representative from JMA noted that New Flyer is “well on its way to being one of the best employers … in east Alabama, if not the entire state.”

Frameworks Can Be a Powerful Tool

Community benefits frameworks can help level the playing field between local communities and project developers. When successful, they allow local communities to shape the impact of large-scale clean energy infrastructure projects and hold companies accountable to deliver substantive benefits. In turn, companies can also benefit from these agreements by gaining community support, building stronger local partnerships and learning from local community organizations’ deep expertise of their region — all of which can help developers avoid legal challenges, assuage local opposition and, ultimately, build successful projects.

To ensure the success of community benefits frameworks and community engagement efforts broadly, companies should engage communities early, proactively and authentically to understand community concerns about a given project. With such engagement, these frameworks can then be tailored to meaningfully address community concerns and deliver tangible local benefits.