Last year, we wrote about strategies to ensure communities benefit from the clean energy transition. In this blog, we dive into one tool, Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs)¹, sharing results from a targeted Literature Review produced for the Washington State Department of Commerce as follow-on work to the 2024 Rural Clean Energy Economics and Community Engagement report.

This blog aims to provide insight into topics, challenges, opportunities, and best practices for establishing CBAs as a commonly accepted component of clean energy projects. A second companion blog explores Tribal Benefits Agreements. While finding documented evidence of community benefits from clean energy projects can be challenging, there is a helpful body of research that examines the role that community benefits, and CBAs in particular, might play in clean energy development.

Background

CBAs are legally binding, enforceable contracts signed by project developers and community groups or municipalities that can provide funds to support affordable housing, environmental mitigation, infrastructure, and other priorities identified by the community.

The U.S. Department of Energy (U.S. DOE) defines² a CBA as:

“an agreement signed by community groups or coalitions and a project developer, identifying the community or labor benefits a developer agrees to deliver in return for community support or workforce availability for a project… to help ensure that measurable local benefits will be given to a community. They are enforceable, legally binding contracts for all parties. They typically specify responsibilities, reporting, and remedies.”

CBAs are one example of a community benefits framework; others include Host Community Agreements (HCAs), Project Labor Agreements (PLAs); Good Neighbor Agreements(GNAs); and Community Benefits Plans (CBPs). CBAs share many similarities with HCAs and GNAs in particular, where HCAs typically refer to agreements with local governments and GNAs are generally agreements with neighboring landowners.

CBAs for Clean Energy Project Development

In the past decade, CBAs have increasingly been used in clean energy project development, but many lessons learned about opportunities, challenges, and best practices still come from the longer and more robust history as a tool in non-energy urban development projects. The first well-known CBA in the U.S. was negotiated in Los Angeles, CA in 2001 between a community group coalition and the developers of the Staples Center. This urban development CBA included a plan for local hiring, living wage policy, job-training programs, construction of a public park, and developing affordable housing.

CBAs are seen to fill a niche in clean energy project development because utility-scale energy projects do not naturally provide benefits for the local community (in contrast to distributed energy projects, such as rooftop solar). While projects may provide increased tax revenue, jobs, and/or benefits to the electricity grid, direct benefits do not necessarily flow to the community without an external framework. CBAs and other community benefits aim to distribute benefits more widely across a community (for example, compared to land lease payments, which are concentrated on a smaller group of landowners hosting the clean energy development on their property).

CBAs are not yet a commonly used tool for clean energy projects, although the literature suggests that the frequency of use varies by technology. While there have been documented examples of CBAs established for onshore wind projects and utility-scale solar development, formal CBAs have been used more for offshore wind than other clean energy technologies. Financial benefits have more commonly come from other mechanisms, like tax revenues and land lease payments.

Who is Involved and Why?

CBAs can provide a “win-win-win” solution for the various parties involved, and each party likely comes to the table with different motivations. There are usually three main parties involved: project developers, the community, and local government.

• Project Developer: A project developer is defined as the entity which seeks to site a clean energy project on private or public land. A 2024 survey by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers found that wind and solar developers are “highly concerned about the impact of community opposition on project deployment.” The developer may enter into CBA negotiations seeking increased community support (or non-opposition) and less uncertainty in the siting,  permitting, and approval processes, viewing community engagement as a way to overcome a barrier of project opposition and achieve the goal of project deployment.
  
  • Drawing from the broader community engagement literature, project developers may also come to the table because of what Nilson et al. calls “moral justification,” which “views community engagement as component of a fundamental human right to democratic participation in land-use and environmental decision-making: community engagement should occur because it is the right thing to do.” This is distinct from “instrumental” motivation, which views engagement as “a means to an end with a predetermined goal of project development.”
  • The CBA negotiation process can also improve the design of the developer’s project and ensure that it is integrated into the local context and serves local needs.
• ‍Community: There is variation in how the “community” is defined, and the definition can depend on each project. Many sources agree that ideally the community would be represented by a diverse coalition that effectively represents varied community interests (see here and here). Community groups are motivated to enter negotiations to advocate on behalf of the community they represent. In doing so, they strive to help shape both monetary and non-monetary benefits within the CBA to mitigate potential negative impacts and to ensure positive outcomes for their community.
  
  • Because the definition of “community” can vary from one agreement to the next, CBAs can, and should, include detail about who will receive the benefits. For example, a CBA for a wind project in Illinois includes a provision to provide benefits to residents who have turbines within 3,000 feet of their homes.

• Local Government: Local government can include county officials, city councilmembers, as well as other county- and city-level staff. The extent to which local government is involved in a CBA depends on the context and the local and state permitting policies. Local governments may be motivated to pursue a CBA to avoid lengthy and contentious permitting processes and also to shape and receive the benefits outlined in the agreement.

Steps to Establishing a CBA  

There is wide variation in the process to establish a CBA, including which party initiates the negotiation. General steps consistently referenced in the literature (see here and here) include the following:

1. ‍Increase education and awareness: Before being able to begin a CBA process, communities need to be aware that CBAs are an option. A 2023 survey of likely voters by Data for Progress found that increased community awareness and engagement are critical; while less than 30% of respondents were familiar with various types of community benefits frameworks, 80% supported using them after reading a description.‍
2. Convene community members to identify concerns and community priorities: It is important to ensure diverse community voices are included that effectively represent community interests. Because each community and project is unique, the emerging concerns and priorities will look different for every community. It is particularly important for the community to hold internal discussions before speaking to the developer to “(a) resolve internal disputes; (b) identify common interests, needs, and priorities; and(c) figure out what they want, what they will accept, and what they think would be fair.”‍
3. Identify terms, requirements, and enforcement mechanisms: The terms should be detailed and should provide real, specific, and meaningful benefits. Enforcement mechanisms give the community a means by which to hold the developer accountable.‍
4. Engage with developer, draft agreement, and sign: It is recommended to use a third-party facilitator and consult legal expertise.‍
5. Implement and enforce: CBAs should have effective monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, which can differ based on the circumstances and should be detailed in the agreement itself.

Opportunities

Example Benefits Included in a CBA

While payments of some kind are the most common benefit in a CBA, there are many other types of benefits that can be included, depending on the unique priorities and desires of each community.

The island community of New Shoreham, for example, was motivated by the promise of new transmission infrastructure that would connect Block Island to mainland electricity, which would both lower their electricity prices and decrease the frequency of brownouts and outages. Another project in Nebraska converting a natural gas pipeline into a carbon dioxide (CO₂) pipeline included key benefits focused on landowner protections, public safety, and community investment. A utility-scale solar energy project in New York provided monetary benefits earmarked for different purposes including community health and welfare, protection of agriculture and open space, workforce development, and more.

The following is a non-comprehensive list of benefits that have been included in real CBAs (mostly non-energy related CBAs, due to data availability), documented by the World Resources Institute:

• ‍Direct financial support (e.g., contribute to an existing fund, fund a study, provide annual payments to a local municipality)
• ‍Education (e.g., assist workers in obtaining certifications, offer field trips, develop an internship program with local public schools)
• ‍Employment and workforce training (e.g., fund existing or create new job training programs, pay a living wage, prioritize local hiring, negotiate a Project Labor Agreement with a local union)
• Local infrastructure and housing (e.g., contribute funds toward an affordable housing development, lease a certain percentage of retail space to qualified community-based businesses, include public transportation access to the development)
• ‍Health and safety (e.g., include a meditation room in the development, fund a healthcare access program, fund a study on toxic air contaminants, outfit construction equipment with control devices to reduce particulate matter emissions)
• ‍Environmental and climate (e.g., obtain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – LEED – certified status for buildings within the project, contribute funds to existing sustainability programs or establish new funds to support transition to renewable energy, create an environmental impact mitigation fund)  

CBA Policy Landscape

Community benefits are not currently required by the federal government or most U.S. states, with some exceptions. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) required Community Benefits Plans (CBPs, non-binding documents that lay out the developer’s plan for engagement) for Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding opportunity announcements and loan applications. Additionally, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) incentivized the use of community benefits by using a bidding credit in the 2023 California offshore wind energy sale to encourage developers to form CBAs.

Some states have policies that encourage the use of CBAs. New Jersey’s Economic Recovery Act (2021), for example, requires CBAs for all projects costing $10 million or more (not limited to clean energy projects) that are part of a statewide tax incentive program. Other states, such as California (Assembly Bill 205, 2022) and Michigan (Public Act 233, 2023), have policies that provide alternative expedited permitting pathways for projects that include CBAs or other community benefits mechanisms. New York is another state that has emphasized community benefits, establishing a “host community benefit program” in accordance with the state’s Accelerate Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act.

A UC Berkeley Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment brief outlines examples of strategies that incentivize or require community benefits, each with associated pros and cons. Incentives include extending bidding credits to developers for incorporating community benefits in project proposals (e.g., BOEM offering bidding credits in offshore wind auctions for developers that enter into a CBA)or legislation that incentivizes community benefits (e.g., offering an alternative expedited permitting process for developers that provide community benefits). These types of incentives may lead to earlier and more proactive community engagement from the developer as well as more competitive developer proposals, but community benefits are not guaranteed.

Examples of strategies that require community benefits include policies that stipulate specific benefits (e.g., local hiring, affordable housing) be provided by infrastructure projects or require community benefits as part of grant-funded projects (e.g., U.S. DOE requiring CBPs for BIL and IRA funding). Requiring community benefits can help ensure that host communities have clearly defined benefits with set standards, and it may also demand less time and resources from community groups and may simplify enforcement. However, requirements also run the risk of community groups lacking a voice in the content of benefits, meaning that benefits implemented may not reflect actual community priorities or goals.

The Initiative for Energy Justice further explains that standardizing and institutionalizing CBAs can decrease their effectiveness and that community benefits ordinances “ have generally led to non-binding agreements, excluded grassroots groups from the negotiation process, treated community benefits as a box-ticking exercise, and provided community benefits ceilings instead of starting points.”

For both incentivized and required CBAs, communities may not have adequate resources to engage in the CBA process, which can lead to a weak CBA or one that does not actually address community needs.

Barriers

• Trust is a critical factor in establishing CBAs for clean energy projects, yet host communities are often excluded from early decision-making due to project proposals being kept private until land is secured. This lack of transparency, combined with historical harms from the fossil fuel industry, can foster deep skepticism toward developers, who are not seen as neutral actors. Pursuing engagement aimed solely at project approval can further erode trust, as highlighted by Ryder et al., who note that investing in community engagement can actually move projects forward more rapidly in some cases. To build genuine trust, developers must engage communities early and consistently, listen to their specific needs, and co-create benefits that reflect local values—recognizing that financial incentives alone may be perceived as bribes.
• Confidentiality: Non-disclosure agreements or other confidentiality clauses can make it difficult for those not involved to find documented benefits, especially financial details, from CBAs. This lack of transparency can make it challenging to monitor, enforce, and measure success of a CBA. It is also uncommon to find documented details on the negotiation process and how benefits were chosen, which can pose challenges for developers, communities, or local governments aiming to use existing CBAs as a guide.
•  Limited Experience: Host communities may not know what is reasonable to include in a CBA and may not have experience with utility-scale clean energy projects in general. This imbalanced power dynamic between community group and developer makes the first step of increasing education and awareness even more critical to ensure that communities understand the structure of a CBA and the range of benefits that could be included. However, the challenges with confidentiality described above can make it difficult for host communities with limited experience to gain knowledge of what could be included in a CBA. The CBA databases referenced at the end of this blog can be a helpful starting place.  
• Community Representation: Due to inherent power dynamics between the project developer and the local community, it can be challenging to ensure real community participation. There are documented CBAs that fell short and, as the Partnership for Working Families explains, “served to disempower, rather than empower, the community most impacted by the development projects.” Elements of these ineffective CBAs include: no community signatories, signatory organizations handpicked by the developer or politicians, organizations without any CBA negotiating experience or legal counsel, and secretive negotiations.

Best Practices

CBAs are part of broader community engagement, meaning that the CBA is not the end goal, but instead a milestone in the process and the beginning of an ongoing relationship between the developer and community. However, based on the available literature, several best practices can be followed to provide the greatest chance for a CBA to provide long-term benefits that a community wants and needs:

• Prioritizing transparent engagement early and often is a key best practice for CBAs. The engagement process itself should be transparent, inclusive, accessible, and meaningful. Community engagement should also ideally occur with a large coalition of community members to ensure robust representation. Many communities may lack the required capacity, resources, or technical expertise to negotiate successfully. It is therefore recommended that the community hire a technical expert for guidance, and the community can request funding from the developer to do so.
  
  • Another engagement strategy is leveraging key trusted local residents as representatives. In the Block Island Wind Farm CBA, which is lauded as a successful example of community engagement, the developer hired a community liaison, who was a trusted member of the local community, to host community meetings, answer questions, and help foster connection between the community and developer.
•  Because CBAs are legally binding documents, ensuring clear terms of agreement is critical to their success. CBAs should establish clear terms, penalties, and timelines, as well as the roles and responsibilities of each party. CBAs should be flexible, with the ability to be updated over time. A neutral third-party mediator, as well as legal expertise to ensure clarity and legal accuracy, can be very helpful in CBA negotiations. Ideally, community groups would be able to hire legal counsel with subject matter expertise in the clean energy technology of concern. As with technical assistance, developers can give community groups funding to cover legal expenses of the negotiation, which can help address the imbalanced power dynamics.
• A CBA cannot be deemed complete or successful when it is signed; ongoing communication and enforcement is necessary to ensure accountability and that the promised benefits are delivered. Effective CBAs therefore must detail specific provisions for monitoring compliance. The agreement must also be structured in such a way that all parties can enforce the provisions and measure success.

Learn More

The following resources provide additional detail on best practices for creating and implementing CBAs:

Guides for Developing a CBA

Common Challenges in Negotiating Community Benefits Agreements and How to Avoid Them – Partnership for Working Families and Community Benefits Law Center (2016)

Community Benefits – Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services (2024)

Community Benefits Agreements for Solar Development Resource Guide – Great Plains Institute (2025)

Community Benefits Agreements: Case Studies, Federal Guidelines, and Best Practices – Clean Air Task Force (2023)

Community Benefits Agreements: Framework for Success – Power Switch Action (2021)

Expert Insights on Best Practices for Community Benefits Agreements – Sabin Center for Climate Change Law (2023)

Wind Energy Community Benefits Guide – WINDExchange, U.S. Department of Energy (2023)  

Databases/Case Studies of CBAs and Community Benefits

Community Benefit Agreements: Wind Energy Community Benefits Database – WINDExchange, U.S. Department of Energy (2024)

Community Benefits Agreements Database – Sabin Center for Climate Change Law (updated regularly)

Community Benefits Catalog – RMI (2025)

Community Benefits Projects Overview – Local Energy Scotland (2024)

Community Benefits Snapshot: Block Island Wind Farm Community Benefits Agreement – World Resources Institute (2025)  

Community Benefits Snapshot: North Plains Connector Transmission Line Community Engagement and Benefits – World Resources Institute (2025)  

Community Benefits Snapshot: Tallgrass-Bold Alliance CO₂ Pipeline Community Benefits Agreement – World Resources Institute (2025)  

Database of Community Benefits Frameworks Across the US – World Resources Institute (updated regularly)

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Endnotes

1. Both Community Benefits (plural) Agreements and Community Benefit (singular) Agreements are accepted terms and are referred to as CBAs. The plural form appears to be more common and is used in this blog.

2. This definition was posted on a U.S. DOE webpage that has since been taken down (https://www.energy.gov/infrastructure/about-community-benefits-plans). The U.S. DOE Frequently Asked Questions about CBAs still exists and is available here.

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