PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - O’Brien, Brock
AU  - Hagerty, Nick
TI  - The Tradeoff Between Wildlife Conservation and Renewable Energy
AID  - 10.3368/le.101.3.092023-0091R
DP  - 2025 Mar 07
TA  - Land Economics
PG  - 092023-0091R
4099  - http://le.uwpress.org/content/early/2025/02/28/le.101.3.092023-0091R.short
4100  - http://le.uwpress.org/content/early/2025/02/28/le.101.3.092023-0091R.full
AB  - This paper estimates the effect of wildlife protection on wind energy development in the central United States. Federal enforcement of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act increased after a court decision in 2013, raising potential liability for wind developers in regions where eagles are common. We find that counties where eagles are common slowed their wind energy development after 2013 relative to counties with fewer eagles. The costs of forgone wind energy appear considerably greater than the quantifiable benefits from avoided eagle fatalities, suggesting that current policy overvalues wildlife protection relative to green energy.