'Who Owns (a piece of) the Wind'

David McDermott Hughes, an anthropologist at Rutgers University, has a working grasp of the energy economy. He proposes a new framework for divvying up profits from one of America’s fastest-growing sources of energy – The Wind. In his new book, "Who Owns the Wind?" Climate Crisis and the Hope of Renewable Energy," he argues that wind – that invisible force useful in the past only to sailors and poets - is fast becoming a finite resource with a clear set of economic winners and losers. After years studying land reform in Africa, he turned his attention to "Energy without Conscience," a book about the oil industry. "If we decarbonize in 30 years, “a single generation of firms and individuals will profit handsomely.” But he sees an alternative. Governments and institutions striking an energy deal where the “sky remains open to all." If government fails, he argues, the energy transition may fail too. "Who Owns the Wind?" summarizes work he did in Spain. It became one of the first countries to buy into the wind industry. He spent months in a poor community near the Straits of Gibraltar surrounded by turbines. The people viewed them with a passionate resentment. By 2013, windmills were pumping 55 gigawatt-hours of electricity onto Spain’s grid. Its momentum didn’t last. A big reason was the “not-in-my-backyard" opposition. The U.S. wind industry is also poised to take off. Democrats are proposing tax credits and future incentives for utilities to build more. More turbines, in more places. More neighbors interrupted and angry. Jobs may not create a good-will counterbalance. He thinks persuading communities to enter the wind bargain is to give everyone a piece of the action. But, that’s not the way the wind is blowing today. (Source: Energy Wire 11/24/21) Who owns the wind? An anthropologist has ideas - E&E News (eenews.net)