Community Benefits and Impacts from Energy Development: The Case of Offshore Wind

Project Results, Publications and Engagement

Energy development projects can create both opportunities and challenges for host communities. New infrastructure may bring jobs, investment, and funding for local priorities while also raising concerns related to environmental change, existing industries, cultural resources, and local participation in decision making. 

This project examines how communities, developers, policymakers, and supporting organizations address questions of local impacts and community benefits associated with large-scale energy development. Offshore wind development serves as a case study for understanding how benefit arrangements emerge, how negotiations unfold, and how communities navigate complex energy infrastructure siting processes across U.S. coastal regions. Research activities included interviews, surveys, document analysis, and engagement with community members, local leaders, developers, nonprofit organizations and policy makers.

Emerging Insights

Full findings and supporting analysis are available in project reports and research publications below.

Project Phase 1: Review of existing community benefit agreements affiliated with offshore energy development in the U.S., and interviews with affiliated developers and affected communities.

How have communities experienced large-scale energy development and the negotiation of affiliated community benefit agreements so far?

Research Findings Include:

• Benefit agreements often include financial support, such as a community benefit fund, but they can also contain other types of programs, like job training or environmental restoration projects.
  
• The dollar amount of monetary benefits can vary widely; larger amounts are often linked to certain types of project impacts and the capacity of the community to engage in the process.
  
• Community leaders, community members, and developers may have different expectations about the purpose of community benefit agreements and how they should be developed, which can complicate the process and lead to challenges or conflict.
  
• Small communities may face capacity constraints when engaging in benefit negotiations, including limited staff time and fewer opportunities to build experience or specialized expertise, which can shape how they participate in these processes.
  
• Third parties like nonprofit groups and legal experts can play an important role in community benefit processes by helping make them more transparent, supporting communities with limited resources, representing local interests, and ensuring that benefits are clearly defined and meaningful.

Project Phase 2: Interviews and surveys in communities that would be potentially impacted by possible future offshore energy development.

How do communities view potential future large-scale energy development and affiliated community benefit agreements (CBAs)? 

Research Locations:

Oregon research results (Brookings & Coos Bay)

Perspectives on Offshore Wind

• Survey results showed more opposition than support for offshore wind development in our selected Oregon communities. Opposition outweighed support by about 2-to-1 in Coos Bay and 3-to-1 in Brookings. At the same time, many residents were still undecided: 40% in Coos Bay and 23% in Brookings.
  
• Survey and interview participants were open to other forms of renewable energy development, including onshore wind, rooftop solar, and hydroelectric power.
  
• Survey and interview participants identified negative impacts to commercial fisheries and ocean marine life among their highest concerns.
  
• Survey and interview participants identified economic development, job opportunities, and grid resilience as possible benefits from local offshore wind energy development.

Perspectives on the Offshore Wind Development Process

• Survey respondents expressed concern about fairness in the offshore wind development process. Twenty-seven percent of Coos Bay respondents and 44% of Brookings respondents agreed with a statement that the process was unfair, while many others selected “don’t know/need more information” (42% and 28%, respectively).
  
• Interview participants highlighted concerns about fairness and trust; about half of interviewees expressed low confidence especially in federal processes for community involvement.
  
• Interview participants expressed desire for more information before proceeding with the offshore wind process, highlighting knowledge gaps and uncertainties about the feasibility, cost, and impacts.

Perspectives on Community Benefit Agreements (CBAs)

• A majority of survey respondents in both communities viewed all agreement features as important (how funds are used, who signs the agreement, who manages the funds, and developer involvement in spending decisions), though among those who prioritized one feature, how the money would be used mattered most.
  
• Survey respondents’ top preferences for how CBA funds would be used included general electricity rate relief and improvement of public infrastructure.
  
• Interview participants CBA funding priorities included workforce development, infrastructure improvement, affordable housing, and protection of local industries like commercial fishing.
  
• While survey respondents had mixed opinions on CBAs, a majority believed they should be a mandatory part of large-scale infrastructure development.

Engagement and Project Activities

Throughout the project, researchers engaged with coastal communities, nonprofit organizations, industry representatives, and public agencies through interviews, workshops, and public discussions focused on community experiences with offshore wind development.

Research Team

Principal & Co Investigators

Research Team Members

Partner Institutions

Project Support

Research activities have been supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Wind Energy Technologies Office and the National Wildlife Federation.