AMHERST — Earth’s biological clock is ticking.

And when it comes to launching renewable energy projects to counter climate change, the way governments oversee the permitting new infrastructure can either speed construction, or spur delays and conflict, according to a new study from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The balancing act rests in whether local, state and federal policymakers want to rapidly construct green energy projects or encourage a process with robust public engagement and multiple approvals, which invite possible hurdles and holdups, the researchers noted.

In their study in the Policy Studies Journal, Juniper Katz, an assistant professor of public policy at UMass, said she and graduate student Natalie Baillargeon set out to contextualize the where and how of solar and wind projects, as well as identify how their different outcomes play out in various branches of government.

“One review of 53 large wind and solar projects facing organized local opposition between 2008 and 2021, found that nearly half were ultimately canceled, with developers reporting that zoning disputes and local ordinances are the leading cause of multi-year delays,” the researchers said in a statement.

Of the 50 states and their permitting, Katz and found that 12 largely defer to local governments, six keep authority at the state level, six split decision-making between state and local governments, and 26 use hybrid systems that are triggered by project size and/or standards.

“Highly centralized systems with minimal procedures tend to move faster but provide fewer opportunities for public input. Systems with extensive procedures and multiple decision-making venues tend to offer more participation but are slower and less predictable,” the statement said.

Katz said they noticed a common misperception with the public that renewable energy projects are always handled at the federal level. She said most large renewable energy projects — about 96% of them — are happening at the local level and on private property, where permitting isn’t always straightforward. Such projects include wind, solar farms, battery storage and in-state transmission lines.

The researchers examined the speed of a project when considering how it is governed and permitted, and the role that the local community plays in the project’s timeline.

“There are tradeoffs,” said Katz. “We need to have courage as decision-makers, and even scholars, to place our values behind those choices, to make clear-eyed choices.”

The researchers, in the end, found that renewable energy permitting has “an institutional design problem rather than a simple choice between democracy and speed.”

“What’s really important is that community engagement starts as early as possible,” Baillargeon said in the statement. “This lets developers incorporate stakeholder feedback, accelerating the process and sometimes converting a potential denial into an approval with only minor changes.”

In an interview, Katz said that in Massachusetts, most projects are at the local level. This means that the state provides the governing framework in which local boards and commissions can then exert their own authority over the project, she said.

Massachusetts is creating an online portal for both developers and local authorities to access permit application materials, according to Katz. She believes that having this type of transparency in a single site would be a huge step forward in moving projects along toward completion.

The state also is implementing a “shot clock,” meaning a decision must be made within a one-year period. Katz believes this will be feasible, as a separate study found that Massachusetts takes, on average, 243 days to permit solar, for example.

Coming from a background in land conservation, Katz is a believer in using the land for the purposes of generating clean energy, but understands that sometimes projects can get tied up because of not having the perfect location. When this is the main concern, though, she said the project could be delayed or result in a reduced production capacity.

Despite some public disagreements about locations, Katz said that more than 90% of the projects they looked at nationally made it through the permitting process.

“It’s not perfect,” said Katz of the nation’s permitting systems, “but it’s also not broken.”