Dr. Crist has led and informed numerous projects involving the siting and assessment of renewable energy and electrical transmission projects and plans. These include:

• First Solar: a quantitative assessment of a large solar project in California. This included an assessment of impact on desert tortoise movement.
• Western Governors Association Western Renewable Energy Zone initiative (WREZ). Dr. Crist participated on the advisory panel and led the wildlife assessment of the proposed energy zones.
• Bureau of Land Management: Dr. Crist led multiple projects with BLM to evaluate alternatives in California and Nevada for the greater sage grouse and the Yale Framework application in southern Nevada & California. In those projects, we evaluated conflicts these projects might pose with current and future distributions of species and ecosystem types. We demonstrated (see figure above) how to employ the NatureServe Vista decision support system to find, investigate, and propose alternative sites for projects.
• Dr. Crist was an adviser to both the Eastern and Western electrical interconnection commissions and their respective decision support systems to reduce impacts on wildlife.