Opposition to Renewable Energy Facilities in the United States: June 2025 Edition

By Matthew Eisenson, Jacob Elkin, Ivonne Norman, Rebecca Coombs, Chadol Kim, Rex Koenig, Suzan Michalski, Eric Quiroz, Josepi Scariano, Ava Teasdale, Victor Tong, & Annabel Williams

Increasing the amount of electricity generated in the United States to power electric vehicles, data centers, and other end uses, while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions will require deploying a massive number of renewable energy facilities at an unprecedented scale and pace. Although many renewable energy facilities are sited without a problem, local opposition often arises. The Sabin Center’s annual report, Opposition to Renewable Energy Facilities in the United States, documents legal obstacles and challenges that arise during the siting process. In particular, the report focuses on: (a) state laws and local ordinances (“restrictions”) that impede the siting and deployment of utility-scale solar, wind, battery storage projects, and related transmission projects; as well as (b) instances of organized opposition to individual projects (i.e., “contested projects”). This edition builds on four previous editions of our report, adding developments that occurred between January 1, 2024 and December 31, 2024.

The June 2025 edition of this report finds that severe restrictions, including outright bans and de facto bans on siting renewable energy facilities, as well as controversies over individual projects, are becoming more prevalent—particularly at the local level. By the end of 2024, at least 459 counties and municipalities across 44 states had adopted severe local restrictions on siting renewables. This tally represents an increase of 16% in the prevalence of local restrictions in just one year; the June 2024 edition of this report identified 395 counties and municipalities in 41 states that had adopted severe local restrictions by the end of 2023. This 2025 edition further identifies 498 contested projects in 49 states, an increase of 32% over last year’s edition, which identified 378 contested projects in 47 states. Additionally, this report documents 20 significant state-level restrictions in 16 states, a tally that has remained roughly constant. Importantly, while the report includes all of the qualifying restrictions and controversies the authors have identified, it does not purport to be exhaustive.

Read the report Opposition to Renewable Energy Facilities in the United States: June 2025 Edition, in Columbia Law School's Scholarship Archive.