Deals in the Heartland: Renewable Energy Projects, Local Resistance, and How Law Can Help disproportionately focuses on the negative and the opposition’s talking points with respect to wind energy projects. While it is important to highlight the challenges we are facing, it is also important to highlight the actual data. For example, the article reiterates a lot of the negative impacts around wildlife, sound, health, aesthetics, shadow flickering, and property values.

This Article offers proposals for better engagements, relationships, and deals with local communities contemplating wind farms. Because the rapid expansion of wind energy to date has exhausted the first-mover rural communities, the promise of wind energy depends on reluctant rural communities that may require the legal, relational, and policy innovations proposed herein if they are to grant their consent to future wind farms and participate in the renewable energy transformation.

Prof. Felix Mormann’s introduction in Climate Choice Architecture masterfully highlights the pivotal role of behavioral change in tackling the global climate crisis, and underscores the profound impact of choice architecture—subtle changes in decision environments—on influencing climate-conscious decisionmaking. Drawing from the seminal works of Nobel Laureate Richard Thaler and Prof. Cass Sunstein, Professor Mormann champions the strategic use of small “nudges” to guide individuals and organizations toward sustainable outcomes.

Prof. Felix Mormann’s Climate Choice Architecture comprehensively catalogs and classifies different types of nudge interventions that can be used to combat climate change. He argues that choice architecture can complement command-and-control mandates, market-based incentives, and other forms of regulation while also acknowledging its limitations.

Successful climate change mitigation and adaptation require behavioral change at an unprecedented scale. Fortunately, behavioral research has proven that minor tweaks to the choice environment can usher in a paradigm shift toward more climate-friendly decisionmaking. This Article makes the case for greater reliance on choice architectural nudges as a catalyst for more climate-friendly decisionmaking across a wide range of contexts.