All U.S. presidents want to leave a legacy from their time in power.

For President Obama, I suspect most people would say his main mission in this regard is creating universal, affordable healthcare. Hence the term “Obamacare.”

But his energy and climate change efforts are equally ambitious.

Take his Clean Power Plan, for example, which sets a very aggressive goal for the United States to source 28% of its power from renewable sources by 2030.

I’m not going to get into the scientific arguments over climate change. Rather, let’s look at the unforeseen effects that the Clean Power Plan is already having on many Americans.

Two controversies have already bubbled to the surface…

Controversy #1: Renewable Energy Transmission Lines

The bottom line with any kind of power is that it needs to get from where it’s generated to the people who need it.

That requires transmission lines. Lots of them.

Earlier this year, a report from Edison Electric Institute, the utility trade group, found that of the almost $48 billion in U.S. transmission projects through 2025, 46% of them are aimed at getting renewable power to the masses.

But some of them are already stirring up a hornet’s nest.

For example, Texas-based Clean Line Energy Partners has riled landowners in Arkansas and Missouri. The company builds transmission lines to carry solar- and wind-generated power… but who wants an electric transmission line running through their property?

Naturally, environmental groups that oppose the Keystone XL oil pipeline and other conventional energy projects firmly support these clean energy transmission line projects.

As it is, “NIMBY” is coming back to bite these environmental groups, with the proposals receiving pushback from landowners and state governments alike.

So the companies behind such projects are turning to the federal government. They want the Feds to use eminent domain to override private property rights and just seize the necessary land to build the clean power transmission network.