Federal laws, state laws, and caselaw, haven’t reached a consensus on whether an individual has a right to the wind. Within the field of energy law, the term wind rights hasn’t been uniformly defined and there isn’t a national standard of what legal rights are associated with wind.

I. Contractual Rights to Wind

Imagine that a landowner owned a 200-acre estate in a windy region. The landowner entered into a private lease with an energy company that gave the company the right to install large...