Renewables infrastructure a hardship on farmland

With New York attempting to reach 70 percent carbon-free electricity by 2030, the race is on to install as much solar as can be stuffed onto whatever land can be leased or coerced from farmers struggling to make ends meet.

The establishment of the Office for Renewable Siting, and its cudgel, Section 94-c of the state’s Public Service Law, means those opposed to fields of solar panels are deprived of their right to determine their own laws and futures in the name of clean power expediency — a heavy-handed, eminent domain-style takeover.

Farmland is held captive for the lifespan of the PV farm, and having been industrialized, remediation and infrastructure removal will be required down the road. Aside from landowners reaping profits, the chief beneficiaries are out-of-state developers and their investors. Residential owners are left to look at fields of panels instead of bucolic scenery. Property values are diminished and local tourism is compromised.

Renewables infrastructure not only eats up prodigious mined and processed resources, but puts out a mere fraction of the power produced by a nuclear facility, yet on hundreds of times as much land. Worse, it’s dependent on fossil fuel backup and toxic batteries for storage.

New York must preserve its agricultural and woodland areas. Carbon-free, well-maintained, and energy-dense nuclear should be reconsidered, as it has provided reliable service for many decades, and will ably replace the need for extensive renewables build out.

Keith Rodan

New York City