"Efforts to develop tribal energy face a maddening set of obstacles. Because tribes are sovereign governments, some investors are wary of internal political shifts. Because the federal government holds tribal lands in trust, projects can be choked by bureaucracy. Dale Osborn of DISGEN, a Colorado-based developer, is trying to build a wind farm on the Rosebud reservation in South Dakota. “It took the Bureau of Indian Affairs over a year to look at a document that a good lawyer could do in five days,” he laments. And because tribes do not pay taxes, they may not receive tax credits for renewable projects. The Campo reservation in California is the only one with a working commercial wind farm. It is not owned by the tribe and has a huge nearby market, San Diego.

To date, the federal government has provided modest support for tribal energy. From 2002 to 2008 the Department of Energy spread $16.5m over 93 projects, mostly demonstration and feasibility studies. NREL provides education and technical assistance. Such efforts, and the work of a growing number of independent groups, are helping tribes to become more sophisticated about development, but they can only do so much. Most promising is a draft Indian energy bill presented in March by Byron Dorgan, North Dakota’s junior senator. The law would, among other things, streamline the issuing of permits and let tribes have an ownership stake while transferring tax credits to outside partners. But it depends heavily on the fate of broader energy legislation.

Without action from Washington, projects will continue to move slowly. On the Fort Berthold reservation, waning private interest has prompted the tribe to pursue wind development on its own. On Rosebud, Mr Osborn is waiting for adequate transmission and a power-purchase agreement. Another Rosebud project is an environmental study; the American burying beetle is of special concern. Ken Haukaas, who leads Rosebud’s wind development, feels aggravated. “Every day, with the wind blowing heavily, I look at all that money blowing by.” Of all the victims of stalled climate legislation, no one may be more frustrated than American Indians."

Get the Story:
Harvesting the air (The Economist 3/31)