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Addressing climate change requires societies to transition away from fossil fuels toward low-carbon energy, including renewables. Unfortunately, large wind projects have proven politically controversial, with groups opposing them across advanced economies. To date, there are few large-scale, systematic studies to identify the prevalence and predictors of opposition to wind energy projects. Here, we analyzed a dataset of wind energy projects across the United States and Canada between 2000 and 2016. We found that during this period, in the United States, 17% of wind projects faced significant opposition, and in Canada, 18% faced opposition, with rates in both countries growing over time. Opposition was concentrated regionally in the Northeastern United States and in Ontario, Canada. In both countries, larger projects with more turbines were more likely to be opposed. In the United States, opposition was more likely and more intense in areas with a higher proportion of White people, and a smaller proportion of Hispanic people. In Canada, opposition was more likely and more intense in wealthier communities. The most common tactics used to oppose wind energy were court cases, legislation, and physical protests. The number of people engaging in opposition to wind projects is likely small: Across articles that cited the number of individuals engaging in protests, the median number was 23 in the United States and 34 in Canada. When wealthier, Whiter communities oppose wind projects, this slows down the transition away from fossil fuel projects in poorer communities and communities of color, an environmental injustice we call energy privilege.

Retrospective voting studies typically examine policies where the public has common interests. By contrast, climate policy has broad public support but concentrated opposition in communities where costs are imposed. This spatial distribution of weak supporters and strong local opponents mirrors opposition to other policies with diffuse public benefits and concentrated local costs. I use a natural experiment to investigate whether citizens living in proximity to wind energy projects retrospectively punished an incumbent government because of its climate policy. Using both fixed effects and instrumental variable estimators, I identify electoral losses for the incumbent party ranging from 4 to 10%, with the effect persisting 3 km from wind turbines. There is also evidence that voters are informed, only punishing the government responsible for the policy. I conclude that the spatial distribution of citizens' policy preferences can affect democratic accountability through ‘spatially distorted signalling’, which can exacerbate political barriers to addressing climate change.