It is a known fact that organizations like the Center of the American Experiment, organizations funded by the likes of the Koch Brothers or the Bradley Foundation (of “The Bell Curve” fame) organize anti clean energy activism, often using fake citizens showing up at city or county council meetings, to tamp down efforts to produce non-Carbon releasing electricity. And, in rural Minnesota’s Carver County, this is hurting farmers.
… the community solar gardens cropping up in Carver County farmland are rented from third-party developers. The gardens diversify the farmer’s operation, said U.S. Solar Chief Operating Officer Reed Richerson. And in an agriculture world where prices rise and fall, solar gardens bring consistent, long-term revenue.
“In a sense, the farmers are farming the sun, as opposed to using sunlight to farm corn or beans,” he said. “In some cases, it’s the difference between making a profit on a farm for a year or not.”
The electricity harvested from solar gardens then goes to Xcel Energy. Xcel translates the kilowatt hours of electricity into bill credits for subscribers. Cities, schools, businesses and residences subscribe to third-party developments and receive their allotted bill credits from Xcel energy.
But the county zoning commission is about to stop or limit this sort of development. Why? Well, because of the Koch brothers successful activism, obviously. But the excuse Board Chair Randy Maluchnik give is, “people buy property in rural Carver County to look at rural things, and they don’t have a perception that solar panel farms are rural.”
Elections matter. Vote the anti-environmental operatives out of office. All of them.
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