Social Science

Rural residents and farmers currently own most of the acres of land needed for the development of Utility Scale Solar (USS) in New York and throughout the country.  

Identifying the barriers - perceived and real - to installing renewable energy and finding science-based solutions is key to successfully achieving climate goals.  

Successfully meeting New York's climate goals by 2050 requires a commitment from the scientific community not just to develop new climate friendly technologies, but also to understand the human dimensions of complex problems.  Human behavior when faced with a significant change to rural landscapes can be unpredictable and influenced by a myriad of factors including economics, rural identity, and a strongly held sense of place.  Cornell CALS conducts social sciences research to help inform the policies and practices that will be needed to ensure a less disruptive transition to meeting climate goals set by New York, the United States, and the United Nations. 

Research Area Team

Richard C. Stedman
Richard Stedman

Interim Director

Ashley School of Global Development and the Environment

Richard Stedman

Related research

Cornell CALS work explores whether opposition to USS in upstate New York is shaped at least in part by perceived rural burden — the idea that rural people and places are unfairly expected to provide new renewable energy in response to urban demand.

Rural landscapes are under increasing development pressure from utility-scale solar (USS) energy facilities while public attitudes toward these facilities remain poorly documented and understood. Cornell CALS work explores whether opposition to USS in upstate New York is shaped at least in part by perceived rural burden—the idea that rural people and places are unfairly expected to provide new renewable energy in response to urban demand. We explore the idea of rural burden with measures of distributive injustice, procedural injustice, periphery identity, and place attachment. 
 
We find that 42 percent of residents oppose USS installations in or near their local communities, 14 percent neither support nor oppose, and 44 percent support. Perceived distributive and procedural injustice, along with place attachment have the strongest effect on opposition, while socio-demographic attributes, political ideology, and climate change beliefs were insignificant. These findings suggest that opposition to large scale renewable energy development exemplifies a rural environmental justice concern justified for many by the perceived legacy of exploitation in natural resource development.

References