NIMBY or Concerned Citizen?

Glenn Schleede

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For the past 25 years, virtually anyone who opposed the construction of some kind of major energy facility—such as an oil or gas storage tank, electrical transmission line, power plant, or wind farm—in their neighborhood has been labeled, often derisively, as a “NIMBY,” an acronym for “not in my back yard.”

The term NIMBY is frequently used to discredit project opponents and to avoid dealing with substantive issues they may raise—it’s an ad hominem attack. Often, the wrong people are labeled as NIMBYs. In my view, people in metropolitan areas who are the principal beneficiaries of energy facilities but who don’t want those facilities built anywhere nearby also deserve the term.

Citizens are naturally concerned about the adverse health, safety, noise, environmental, and ecological effects of energy and other facilities located near their homes, schools, and workplaces, but that concern also extends to projects that may impair scenic, property, and other values they consider important. Federal, state, and local governments have enacted a variety of measures to protect private property rights and to limit adverse impacts extending beyond property lines. But those same governments have also exercised powers of eminent domain to permit construction of facilities that authorities believe have public benefits that should override private property rights.

Most people want energy infrastructure to be as invisible as possible—preferably buried far underground. They insist that the ill effects associated with the facilities should be borne by someone else, very far away, or nowhere at all.

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