Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s support of sprawling solar energy fields in rural upstate New York has caught the ire of three federal agencies \u2014 and one country music star \u2014 who are demanding answers about the state\u2019s \u201crush\u201d to approve projects \u201cwithout fully accounting for their long term costs.\u201d <\/p>\n
USDA Sec. Brooke Rollins and EPA Chief Lee Zeldin, along with country singer John Rich, have co-signed a letter<\/a> skewering the Hochul administration\u2019s industrialization of prime farmland for solar energy complexes while potentially strapping costs to rural communities.<\/p>\n Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s support of sprawling solar energy fields in rural upstate New York has caught the ire of three federal agencies \u2014 and one country music star \u2014 who are demanding answers about the state\u2019s \u201crush\u201d to approve projects \u201cwithout fully accounting for their long term costs.\u201d Gregory P. Mango for NY Post<\/p>\n Communities across New York State are outraged by the wildly unpopular solar projects \u2014\u00a0which critics say are not only a blight on the landscape but present real economic and environmental catastrophe. Alex Fasulo<\/p>\n \u201cNothing is more insulting to hardworking New Yorkers than Albany politicians who think they know it all and enthusiastically override local control and railroad local communities,\u201d Zeldin told The Post.<\/p>\n \u201cThe recent actions of Hochul and her allies to force upstate communities to take on the burden of far more solar farms on agricultural land is on-brand elitism that New Yorkers have grown to despise.\u201d<\/p>\n New York\u2019s green energy mandate went into effect with 2019\u2019s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which requires 70% of statewide electricity to come from \u201crenewable\u201d sources; a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels; and at least 3,000 megawatts of energy storage capacity. Alex Fasulo<\/p>\n New York has already placed industrial-scale solar complexes on an estimated 11,000 acres of USDA-certified prime farmland, according to an analysis by the Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group. Alex Fasulo<\/p>\n Zeldin,\u00a0a former congressman from Long Island,\u00a0said the letter aims to get \u201canswers from Hochul about her heavy-handed steamrolling over America\u2019s most productive farmland.\u201d<\/p>\n The inquest follows The Post\u2019s exclusive reporting on communities <\/a>across the state that are outraged by the projects \u2014 saying they are not only a blight on the landscape but also present economic and environmental catastrophe.<\/p>\n Local residents have been blocked from discussions about the projects and only offered performative town hall meetings with developers, they told The Post.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a third federal agency, the Small Business Administration (SBA) has joined the dogpile, alarmed by \u201cregulatory arbitrage\u201d against small-time farmers.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an example of big government overreach. That is the promise of socialism,\u201d SBA chief Kelly Loeffler told The Post of New York State\u2019s extreme moves to support solar farms at the cost of farmland. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler with USDA Chief Brooke Rollins in Washington, DC this month signing an MOU to protects farmers from lawfare. SBA_Kelly\/X<\/p>\n \u201cNew York has two-and-a-half-million small businesses and we\u2019re watching a state apparatus go against these small businesses in favor of 18 large solar farms that are going to only raise the cost of operating for those \u2026 small businesses, which employ nearly half of New York\u2019s population,\u201d SBA chief Kelly Loeffler told The Post in an exclusive interview. \u201cThis is an example of big government overreach. That is the promise of socialism.\u201d<\/p>\n As for the farmland itself,\u00a0\u201cAmerica has become a net importer of food, as of the Biden administration, because of policy that disrespects agriculture and tries to replace agriculture with climate activism,\u201d\u00a0Loeffler said. \u201cThese are farmers operating a small business designed to feed, fuel and clothe America.\u00a0And the climate lobby is exerting pressure through these regulatory bodies to really have regulatory arbitrage against small businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n On July 10, the Trump Administration appointed Rich<\/a>, of the Nashville duo Big & Rich, as Special Envoy for American Landowners under the USDA\u00a0 \u2014 with a primary mission to \u201cbe an advocate for farmers, ranchers, foresters & other landowners with matters related to renewable energy development projects \u2026 ,\u201d according to a White House press release.<\/p>\n An analysis by The Post reveals that, in upstate New York, a dizzying 24,000 acres of solar panels \u2014\u00a0roughly the footprint of Paris, France \u2014\u00a0are required to equal the output of one typical natural gas facility, which takes up about 25 acres and powers 250,000 homes annually. Jack Forbes \/ NY Post Design<\/p>\n Montgomery County \u2014 west of Albany and one of the state\u2019s poorest areas \u2014\u00a0is in the crosshairs for 18,000 acres of solar complexes, larger than the island of Manhattan and over 7% of the county\u2019s entire geographic area, despite heavy opposition from locals. Jack Forbes \/ NY Post Design<\/p>\n Rich has turned all eyes on New York, where 18 solar complexes are being developed across the state, including the 4,000-acre (6.25-square-mile), 500-megawatt Cider Solar Farm in Genesee County and the 2,000-acre (3.1-square-mile) Ridge View Solar Farm in Niagara County.<\/p>\n The solar bonanza is part of New York\u2019s green energy mandate that went into effect with 2019\u2019s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act<\/a> (CLCPA) and requires 70% of statewide electricity to come from \u201crenewable\u201d sources, along with a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels and at least 3,000 megawatts of energy storage capacity.<\/p>\n To add insult to injury, many of the multibillion-dollar solar contracts have been farmed out to foreign companies \u2014 including Canada\u2019s Boralex, France\u2019s EDF Renewables and South Korea\u2019s Cypress Creek Renewables, The Post has found.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rural folks across the state are frustrated at feeling steamrolled by Big Solar and Albany; to add insult to injury, many of the solar developers are foreign company\u2019s like Canada\u2019s Boralex. Alexandra Fasulo<\/p>\n The footprint of a proposed solar energy complex in Fort Edward, New York, has local residents fighting. Alexandra Fasulo<\/p>\n The state has taken a bold, first-in-the-nation move to sidestep the federal USDA soil ranking system, which is used to identify and protect the nation\u2019s most high-yield farmland.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a lot of ways to produce electricity: nuclear, natural gas, coal, hydro. We only have one way to grow food, and that\u2019s prime farmland,\u201d Robert Bryce, a Texas-based author and energy industry insider, told The Post. \u201cNew York really needs to take a sober look at what is really happening here because this headlong rush to pave rural America is a big mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2020 New York\u2019s energy authority, NYSERDA, quietly replaced references to the USDA national standard \u201cPrime Farmland\u201d with New York\u2019s own \u201cMineral Soil Groups (MSG) 1-4\u201d in renewable energy guidance and incentive programs, an analysis by The Post reveals.<\/p>\n This, critics claim, allowed New York to have its own in-house metric to set rules for what counts as \u201chigh-value\u201d farmland \u2014 including what taxes and penalties developers have to pay, or not, for building on the most productive soils.<\/p>\n On July 10, the Trump Administration appointed country music star John Rich as Special Envoy for American Landowners, with a primary mission to \u201cbe an advocate for farmers, ranchers, foresters & other landowners with matters related to renewable energy development projects.\u201d Kevin Winter\/ACM2009<\/p>\n New York took a bold, first-in-the-nation move to sidestep the federal USDA soil ranking system \u2014\u00a0used to identify and protect the nation\u2019s most high-yield farmland\u2013in order to prioritize its own farmland classification metric. Getty Images<\/p>\n Rollins <\/a>and other Trump administration officials have blasted the new soil ranking system as a scheme to fast-track solar projects onto historically high-yield prime farmland and bypass the more restrictive federal classifications.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Hochul has run in the opposite direction regarding data centers, announcing last week a moratorium of up to one year<\/a> on construction of new ones that use more than 50 megawatts of electricity \u2014 roughly enough to power 40,000 homes.<\/p>\n Comparable data centers sit on a modest 15-40 acre sites. But New York has already placed industrial-scale solar complexes on an estimated 11,000 acres of USDA-certified prime farmland, according to an analysis by the Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a lot of ways to produce electricity\u2013nuclear, natural gas, coal, hydro. We only have one way to grow food \u2014\u00a0and that\u2019s prime farmland,\u201d Robert Bryce, a Texas-based author and energy industry insider, told The Post. Alex Fasulo<\/p>\n Rollins, Rich and Loeffler have set their sights on New York\u2019s green energy land grab\u2013and put the Hochul administration on notice. SBA_Kelly\/X<\/p>\n The USDA has the ability to block taxpayer dollars and limit subsidies to solar projects sitting on certified prime farmland.<\/p>\n While there is heavy overlap, tension has emerged between the two ranking systems. In their letter, Rollins and Zeldin point to the Mill Point Solar complex, a proposed 250-megawatt facility sitting on 2,600 acres in Montgomery County.<\/p>\n \u201cUSDA\u2019s classification system identified more than 82% of the affected land as prime farmland or its equivalent, while New York\u2019s MSG system counted only 11% of that same land as prime,\u201d the letter stated regarding that site.<\/p>\n \u201cOn some parcels where panels are proposed, USDA considers the acreage to be entirely prime farmland or its equivalent, while New York classifies less than 5% \u2014 or none \u2014 of it as prime,\u201d the June 26 letter to Gov. Hochul stated. Alex Fasulo<\/p>\n Environmentalists, along with Zeldin\u2019s EPA, are sounding the alarm on an impending tsunami of green energy garbage which they fear Hochul has no plan to deal with. Solar panels, which have toxic components, only have a life of about 15 years, energy experts say. Alex Fasulo<\/p>\n \u201cOn some parcels where panels are proposed, USDA <\/a>considers the acreage to be entirely prime farmland or its equivalent, while New York classifies less than 5% \u2014 or none \u2014 of it as prime.\u201d<\/p>\n Montgomery County, west of Albany and one of the state\u2019s poorest areas, is in the crosshairs for 18,000 acres of solar complexes \u2014 larger than the island of Manhattan and over 7% of the county\u2019s entire geographic area.<\/p>\n The village of Canajoharie, NY, in Montgomery County, is bracing for Big Solar. The county is suing New York\u2019s Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Electric Transmission, claiming \u201cunlawful\u201d permitting process. Houston Chronicle via Getty Images<\/p>\n But even all that land will produce an abysmal amount of electricity. An analysis by The Post reveals that in upstate New York, a dizzying 24,000 acres of solar panels \u2014 roughly the footprint of Paris, France \u2014 are required to equal the output of one typical natural gas facility, which takes up about 25 acres and powers 250,000 homes annually.<\/p>\n