White House Will Recruit Rural Land for New Clean Energy Projects, Could It Create Too Much Competition for Land?

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January 14, 2022

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by Tyne Morgan (Farm Journal AgWeb) The Biden Administration is ramping up its efforts to deploy clean energy infrastructure across the country. The White House announced this week plans to utilize public lands and rural America for wind, solar and other clean energy projects, but admits it will be a balance to ensure the efforts don’t create too much competition for land.

The Biden Administration says the plan is designed to create jobs across rural America, while lowering the cost of energy. President Biden’s National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy did a one-on-one interview with AgWeb. She says by advancing wind, solar, transmission and other clean energy projects, America is one step closer to cleaner and cheaper energy. And they are doing so by utilizing help from multiple federal agencies, including the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, Energy, as well as EPA.

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Prioritize clean energy deployment in rural communities
Provide financing for agricultural producers and small businesses to install solar arrays and other clean energy infrastructure
Create new Rural Energy Pilot Program with $10 million in grants
Build clean transmission lines
Help local governments speed up approvals for rooftop solar in order to unlock economic and health benefits for their communities

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McCarthy points out the recently passed Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is the largest investment in the nation’s power grid. And she says by using that money to build thousand of miles of new transmission lines, it will provide clean and affordable electricity that’s reliable at a time when areas battle extreme weather, wildfires and other disasters.

Increased Competition for Farmland

The announcement also comes as farmland values soared in 2021, with little signs of a slowdown in 2022. More investors are also increasing the competition for land.

The most recent Ag Land Survey conducted by the Chicago Federal Reserve, found overall, agricultural land values surged 18% year over year during the third quarter of last year. And just looking at “good” farmland values, those were up 6% across Iowa, portions of Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana. READ MORE

The largest remaining tall-grass prairie in Texas is getting solar panels. Environmentalists can’t stop it. A solar facility on a 3,594-acre tract of land has environmental groups searching for a way to save what they consider a living museum (Washington Post)

The Energy Transition Runs Into a Ditch in Rural Ohio -- Resistance to renewable energy is growing in America’s farm country, including in this Ohio village where a solar proposal has divided the community. Here’s how it looks to two families that used to be friends: the Scheins and the Barneses. (Inside Climate News)

Podcast: Solar Opposites (Inside Climate News)

Protecting the Driftless Area: ELPC is working to protect the Driftless Area from the unnecessary, 17-story Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line that would cause undue harm to the unique landscape. (Environmental Law and Policy Center)

In the End, Solar Power Opponents Prevail in Williamsport, Ohio -- EDF Renewables is abandoning plans for a 400-megawatt photovoltaic array in response to intense local opposition, a loss of millions of dollars for local governments, schools and property owners. (Inside Climate News)

America needs a new environmentalism -- Preventing clean-energy infrastructure from being built is no way to save the planet (The Economist)

In California’s Central Valley, the Plan to Build More Solar Faces a Familiar Constraint: The Need for More Power Lines
The state could embrace “policy synergy” to deploy solar in areas transitioning out of agriculture, but the transmission lines must come first. (Inside Climate News)

Excerpt from Inside Climate News: His (Mark Schein) offense in the eyes of many in this community is that he signed a lease with a developer that wants to build a solar array, one of five solar projects in the area that opponents say will drive down property values and turn a pastoral landscape into a toxic industrial site.

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The divisions in Williamsport are important not because they are unusual but because they are common. Rural communities are increasingly rising up to oppose renewable energy, as shown in a 2021 study by researchers at Michigan State University and the University of Michigan. Also, a team at MIT wrote this year about 53 renewable energy projects across the country that were delayed or blocked, finding that many of the same objections arise over and over, about aesthetics, safety and property values.

Among the other examples: In Indiana, more than a dozen counties have passed rules to stop construction of new wind farms because of concerns about overdevelopment and health issues; in Nevada, residents are campaigning against solar projects in the desert just west of Las Vegas, citing the potential damage to native plants and animals; and Virginia has become an epicenter of opposition to solar power, with high-profile fights like one against a project in Spotsylvania.

The conflict is one of many urban-rural divides, in which rural areas dominated by Republicans are being asked to transform their landscapes to make electricity that will mainly serve cities dominated by Democrats.

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For the first time, people knew how large the project was going to be—about 2,700 football fields—and that it was going to be visible from dozens of houses occupied by people who had not leased their land.

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Most of the jobs would be during the construction phase, followed by eight long-term jobs to maintain the plant. The project would pay $3 million per year for leases with landowners, and a projected $3.6 million per year in taxes, most of which would go to public schools, with the rest going to local governments. (For perspective, the Westfall Local School District, based in Williamsport, has an annual budget of $18.6 million.)

The Chipmunk project is one of five in the county, with 1,054 megawatts that are in various stages of regulatory approval and construction. Developers are attracted to the region’s flat land and easy access to interstate power lines, making this one of the state’s hotbeds for potential projects. If all are completed, the local solar arrays would contribute a projected $9 million per year in taxes.

Opponents say that solar developers cannot be trusted to deliver on financial benefits, and that the community already has the resources it needs to provide for residents.

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The panels would be just north of Justin and Adrienne (Barnes)’s vacation rentals, which they fear would turn a rural getaway into a close-up view of an industrial zone.

Some of their concern is based on visits to other solar projects that are under construction. They often use the example of the Hillcrest project in Appalachian Ohio, which is half the size of the Chipmunk project. They also can see the construction work taking place just south of Williamsport at the Yellowbud project.

In both cases, the construction phase is ugly, with a loss of topsoil and trees, and areas of flooding that indicate damage to drainage tile, turning pristine land into a mud pit, they say. READ MORE