Energy Infrastructure Creates Regional Impacts
Energy infrastructure may be built within a city or town, but its consequences rarely stop there. Host communities often negotiate community benefits agreements with developers to secure tax revenue and other local benefits. Meanwhile, neighboring cities and towns can face environmental, economic, and infrastructure impacts despite having little say over project decisions and reaping few of the benefits. The ripple effects of energy infrastructure raise an important issue: If the costs and impacts are regional, should the planning and benefit agreements be regional as well?
Consider the Shepards Run Solar Project in Copake, New York. The project was planned to sit in the middle of the Taconic Watershed, which provides all of the drinking water for the city of Hudson. Yet, opposition to the project is mounting across the region, according to a report by CBS 6 Albany. A 2026 Field Report from the University of Georgia found that large-scale solar projects can affect local water resources in various ways, influencing runoff, erosion, and water quality in a region if not properly designed and managed. This report illustrates that community concerns about the solar project’s effects on the watershed are valid. These cross-jurisdictional challenges demonstrate why energy infrastructure planning requires a regional approach rather than a purely local one.
Regional impacts are not just limited to environmental concerns. A case study featured in NARC’s Energy Planning Guide highlights how Southwest Michigan Planning Commission (SWMPC) responded to the decommissioning of the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station by forming the Palisades Economic Recovery Initiative. SWMPC secured $1.2 million in funding for the project, brought together key stakeholders and partners, and developed an economic recovery strategy in partnership with the University of Michigan. They found that the plant’s closure would result in a $259 million reduction in economic output across the entire region, representing 1.1% of the region’s economy. The initiative demonstrated that the economic consequences of major energy facilities extend well beyond the host community, affecting workers, businesses, tax revenue, and economic activity across the broader region.
The Disconnect Between Impacts and Decision-Making
Together, these examples underscore that energy infrastructure challenges rarely stop at a host city’s boundaries. The discrepancies between who has decision-making power and who bears the impacts is continuing to widen as energy projects become increasingly complicated. For example, while a host community may be concerned about workforce development and infrastructure investment, other cities or towns may be concerned about environmental and emergency management impacts. Yet energy siting decisions and community benefit agreements are often negotiated primarily between developers and host jurisdictions, which leaves adjacent communities with little influence. However, a regional approach could identify shared priorities and ensure that both the consequences and burdens of energy projects are more equitably distributed.
Regional Challenges Require Regional Solutions
Regional councils bring together local governments, planning professionals, and technical experts to coordinate transportation, economic development, emergency management, and infrastructure planning across a region.
As noted in NARC’s Energy Planning Guide, regional councils are “uniquely positioned to help navigate [cross-jurisdictional challenges] because energy siting decisions shape the region’s land use, infrastructure, and economic future for decades.” As a trusted third party with expertise in convening stakeholders, brokering consensus, and guiding the development of infrastructure projects, regional councils can ensure that energy planning reflects the interests of all affected communities, not just host communities
What NARC’s Energy Guide Provides
As energy development continues to evolve and regional councils play an increasingly important role in energy planning, NARC recognized that tools and resources are needed to support this work. NARC’s Regional Energy Planning Guide provides an overview of national policy changes, legal and regulatory frameworks, and strategies for building capacity to address siting effectively. Additionally, the guide features several case studies, including the Palisades Economic Recovery Initiative discussed above, that demonstrate how regional councils have navigated energy issues related to transportation, water and wastewater systems, resilience, air quality, and economic development. Our next blog post will focus on the capacities needed to successfully build community consensus.