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the Center for Investigative Reporting and

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PRX, this is Reveal. I'm

0:41

Al Ettin. At

0:46

the Sir William Angus Family Farm

0:49

in Copake, New York, Bruce Conover

0:51

and his son, Justin, are feeding

0:53

their pigs. I'm living

0:55

like a multi-millionaire here with this

0:57

atmosphere. Except you got to work

0:59

seven days a week. The

1:03

Conovers are tenant farmers. They

1:05

raise cows, pigs, and sheep

1:07

here on a postcard countryside

1:09

with rolling hills, corn fields,

1:11

red barns, and old tractors.

1:15

They sell their livestock to local restaurants, markets,

1:17

and a high-end butcher in New

1:19

York City. For

1:21

30 years, the Conovers have been renting

1:23

this land in the Hudson River Valley,

1:26

and it's never been easy. A piece

1:28

of equipment breaks, cow gets

1:30

out, fence falls down, tree

1:32

falls down, there's snowstorm, frozen

1:35

pipes. You always got something

1:37

to deal with every day. Everything

1:39

costs a fortune. But 50 years ago, there

1:41

used to be a farm every half mile

1:43

through here. I mean, it

1:45

was totally agriculture. Now there's probably

1:47

one or two left. One

1:50

of the reasons the Conovers can keep farming here

1:52

is because the rent is cheap. We

1:55

have leased this property for 31 years

1:57

with no contract, no nothing. Unfortunately

2:00

for their landlords, the rent doesn't begin

2:02

to cover the cost of the local

2:04

taxes and insurance. By

2:07

2016, the owners needed to

2:09

figure out how to make more money off

2:11

the land, and they decided to try something

2:13

new, lease most of the

2:16

farmland for solar energy. The

2:18

conovers would lose some of the acres they'd

2:20

use for grazing cattle to solar panels, but

2:23

it would also allow them to keep farming there.

2:26

Solar has to happen, then we understand that. It has

2:28

to happen to save the farm. It's

2:31

not doomsday, but it'll make a

2:33

lot of changes. But

2:35

not everyone in Copac felt this way. In

2:37

a town of less than 3,500 people,

2:40

hundreds have spoken out against the

2:43

proposed solar project. They

2:45

say it will wipe out farmland,

2:47

harm the environment, and destroy the

2:49

character of their community. A

2:51

battle is brewing over a Chicago

2:53

company's plans to construct a solar

2:55

farm in Columbia County. One

2:58

petition opposing the project has received more than

3:00

3,500 signatures. This

3:02

is a terrible thing to happen. I

3:04

said, and we can't take this lying down. Get

3:07

up, stand up, and let's fight this and fight

3:09

it hard. This

3:13

is all playing out, as the U.S. is

3:15

pledging to get serious about climate change. By

3:18

2050, the country needs to get

3:20

to what's called net zero, drastically

3:23

reducing carbon emissions to avoid the

3:25

worst consequences of global warming. And

3:28

to do that, the Department of Energy

3:30

says the U.S. needs about 10 million

3:32

acres of solar energy. Polls

3:35

suggest most people support renewable energy

3:37

development in the U.S. But

3:39

there's a growing backlash, specifically against

3:42

solar projects in rural communities where

3:44

these developments are actually being built.

3:47

Today, we're revisiting a story from

3:49

Reveal's Jonathan Jones. Last

3:51

year, he traveled to Copac, New York, the

3:53

site of one of the most contentious fights

3:56

over solar energy in the country. town

4:00

of Copic has a motto, the

4:02

land of rural charm. It's

4:04

a little hamlet tucked among rolling hills and

4:06

lakes. The people who

4:09

own the land where the Conovers farm

4:11

are Bill and Nancy Raswiler. Okay, so

4:13

I'm Nancy Raswiler. Yep, I'm

4:16

Bill Raswiler. Bill is a

4:18

local veterinarian, and Nancy is a

4:20

child psychologist, and they live just

4:22

outside of Copic. How far

4:24

are you, like in terms of a drive from

4:27

where you are right now to that piece of

4:29

land? Seven minutes. I

4:31

know, because we used to take our kids to school, because the

4:33

school is right next to the farm. Bill

4:36

inherited the 900 acre farm from

4:38

his father, a surgeon. He

4:40

was part of a privileged class of New Yorkers

4:42

who bought farmland upstate in the 1970s and 80s.

4:46

I do the family history, so even

4:48

though I'm not a Raswiler, my

4:50

birth, Bill would rather have me talk mostly. Nancy

4:54

tells me that Bill's father poured tons of

4:56

money into the farm over the years and

4:59

built a thriving cattle business. And

5:01

when his dad passed away in 2014, the Raswilers continued

5:05

to lease out part of their land to the

5:07

Conovers, who'd been managers of the farm.

5:10

That's kept the land agricultural, but

5:12

it hasn't always made the most financial sense.

5:15

Wasn't that there was huge financial hardship?

5:18

But it would have been if that's all we did. I

5:21

think we just wondered

5:23

about how to best

5:25

use that property. In

5:29

2016, New York State was offering

5:31

generous financial incentives as part of

5:33

a large-scale renewable energy initiative, and

5:36

developers were searching for rural communities where

5:38

they could build solar projects. Around

5:40

that time is when we began to get approached

5:43

by people wanting to develop solar.

5:47

One of those solar developers stood out, a

5:49

young man named Gabe Wapner. Gabe

5:52

had grown up in the area, and the Raswilers

5:54

knew his parents. He told the

5:56

Raswilers he worked for one of the fastest-growing

5:58

solar developers in the world. in the nation, a

6:01

company called Hecady that's based in Chicago.

6:04

He approached us personally and said,

6:06

I'm from the area. I

6:08

looked at a variety of different alternate

6:11

energy companies. I chose to work

6:13

for Hecady. I feel really

6:15

good about them. Would you be willing

6:18

to look more seriously at them? And

6:20

so that's why Hecady kind of rose to the top.

6:23

Gabe had been scouring maps of transmission

6:26

lines across the Hudson River Valley. He

6:28

learned that the Raswhilers owned hundreds of

6:31

acres near an electrical substation. So

6:33

he called them up and made his pitch. I

6:35

think, you know, we wanted the

6:38

kids to have options down

6:40

the road. And at the end of the day,

6:42

our kids would still have control over the land.

6:45

And it could be then converted back to a

6:48

full farm or not. It

6:50

just bought us time. And on the same

6:52

time, it's going to generate cleaner

6:55

energy. It just began to

6:57

make sense. They

7:00

eventually came up with plans for a 60 megawatt

7:03

solar project called Shepherd's Run,

7:05

producing enough clean energy to power 15,000 households

7:07

every year. And

7:11

it would require installing close to

7:13

200,000 solar panels, primarily

7:15

on Bill and Nancy's land. The

7:18

Raswhilers and Hecady made it official and

7:20

signed a lease. And

7:22

in April 2017, they presented their plan

7:25

at a town hall meeting. Like

7:28

many of Copac's town halls, this

7:30

one was recorded on cassette tape. Easter

7:32

egg hunt is Saturday

7:35

at the park at 11 o'clock. Do

7:38

not come at 11 o'clock,

7:41

11 o'clock, 21 seconds, or the

7:43

exit will be gone. Gabe gives

7:45

a presentation explaining the logistics

7:48

and benefits of bringing Shepherd's Run to

7:50

Copac. I think they're at a selling

7:52

point to being a green community and

7:55

having renewable energy and being a

7:57

host of it. I think that's something that

7:59

a lot of people have. of people are attracted to if it's

8:02

done in an appropriate way. I

8:06

would say that the atmosphere in the room

8:08

was no, it was it was hostile, but

8:10

not in a politely hostile.

8:13

Well, I don't know. It felt

8:15

very negative. They had firemen

8:17

that came and said that if we had a fire,

8:19

they wouldn't put it out. Rush fire starts and

8:22

goes through that property. They

8:25

won't enter the property because of those

8:28

live panels. That means they

8:30

fight it from the outside. What do you do

8:32

about that? They referred to

8:34

the motto behind the podium. The

8:37

Copic is the town of rural charm. I

8:39

think that our rural scenery

8:42

is not a luxury. It's

8:44

something that scores of businesses

8:46

monetized now for a

8:48

rare bright spot in the rural

8:50

economy from wedding destinations, agro tourism,

8:53

weekend rentals, camps, things like highways,

8:55

bikes, biking, et cetera. And

8:58

then after all that discussion, the meeting takes

9:00

another negative turn for the Raswilers. Whereas a

9:02

town board in the town of Copac finds

9:04

that it is in the best interest of

9:06

the town of Copac to enact local law

9:08

number two, two thousand seventeen, town of Copac

9:10

solar energy law. All in favor. The

9:14

Copac town board passes a new

9:16

zoning law that bans any solar

9:18

projects larger than 10 acres. The

9:22

law was one of several that were being adopted

9:24

by towns in the Hudson River Valley as

9:26

solar developers descended on the region. It

9:30

takes about five to 10 acres of

9:32

land to generate a single megawatt of

9:34

utility scale power. Shepherds

9:36

Run was planned for hundreds of

9:38

acres. So the new ordinance basically

9:41

kills the solar project outright. It

9:44

was really traumatic. People

9:46

on the board were people we knew. I

9:49

was extremely disappointed because I

9:51

didn't expect them to say, oh, yeah,

9:53

but I expected there to

9:55

be a process. So it kind

9:57

of also felt like what a waste of our time. Like,

10:01

they didn't even really listen to us

10:03

or want to hear our ideas or

10:06

trust-build in me that maybe, maybe

10:09

we would try to do this right. It's

10:13

easy to misunderstand our position

10:15

or portray it inaccurately.

10:18

Jean Metler is one of the

10:20

Copac town board members who voted

10:22

for the solar restrictions. She's

10:24

known the Ras Weilers a long time. Her

10:27

father was one of the original founders of

10:29

the Copac Veterinary Clinic, where Bill works.

10:32

I grew up in Copac. So

10:34

growing up in Copac, you knew

10:36

that the backbone of

10:38

our economy and our

10:40

life, our cult-whole culture, was

10:42

farming. She says that everyone

10:44

in Copac, especially the farmers, have seen the

10:46

effects of climate change. So we

10:49

really get it. And we understand

10:51

our obligations as government

10:53

leaders, but also as citizens in this

10:55

country to do something about it. So

10:59

it's not that we're opposed to

11:01

solar panels. We

11:03

try to accommodate utility scale,

11:06

but this is just way too big. The

11:09

town board's deputy supervisor, Richard Wolff, says

11:11

it's not only too big. It's

11:13

also in the wrong place. They're making

11:15

no significant effort to screen

11:18

it, to make it less

11:20

unpalatable to people who are immediately accrossed. We're not

11:22

talking about people with a lot of money up

11:24

on a hill somewhere with huge views who are

11:27

going to have a little dot of this

11:29

in their view, but rather people who are just, this is

11:31

all they're going to see and it's in their face all

11:33

the time. Richard is the

11:36

lead liaison in the town's dealings with Hecate.

11:39

He says the company doesn't care about Copac.

11:41

It's only interested in profits. We

11:44

are not climate deniers, nor are

11:46

we nimbyists. We believe in

11:48

the need for renewable energy and we

11:50

just want to have a say in

11:52

how it's done so that it's reasonable

11:55

and is consonant with the kind of

11:57

community that we have and what we want. Opposition

12:01

to renewable energy projects like

12:03

Shepherd's Run is growing across

12:05

the country. In nearly

12:07

every state, local governments have

12:09

passed laws and regulations to block

12:12

or restrict renewable energy. A

12:14

recent study by Columbia Law School found at least 228

12:16

local laws on the books across 35

12:19

states. Hundreds

12:22

of large-scale renewable energy projects

12:24

are currently facing significant opposition

12:26

from local communities. I

12:28

think it's pretty clear opposition is increasing

12:31

to renewable projects. For the past five

12:33

years, Doug Bassett has been researching what's

12:35

driving local support in opposition to these

12:37

developments. He's a professor

12:40

of community sustainability at Michigan State

12:42

University. Eventually we're going to

12:44

hit a point where you can't build these projects anymore. And

12:47

I fear we're getting closer and closer to that point.

12:50

Doug analyzed seven successful large-scale projects,

12:52

what made them work, and what

12:54

threatened their failure. The

12:57

concerns in Copac are the same

12:59

ones he's hearing around the country.

13:01

The arguments both for and against

13:03

solar development are very similar across

13:05

communities. A lot of the concerns

13:07

about whether our community is

13:10

appropriate for this, are there other places

13:12

that make more sense. We

13:14

see a lot of individuals

13:16

that might have been friends before

13:18

the development comes along and now

13:21

are at each other's throats. He

13:23

says community buy-in is essential. Not

13:26

only so projects don't get caught up

13:28

in lawsuits and other delays. It's also

13:31

just important philosophically. We don't want to

13:33

build projects in communities in which they're

13:35

not desired. Because when

13:37

a project isn't desired, communities move

13:39

to stop it. And

13:42

states with the most renewable energy development

13:44

are the same ones seeing the most

13:46

local opposition. States like

13:48

Michigan, Kansas, Texas, and the

13:50

state where we started this story, New

13:52

York. Speak the truth

13:54

to what this is. It

13:57

is a crisis for the planet. That's

13:59

former New York. Governor Andrew Cuomo back

14:01

in 2020. At the

14:03

time, solar development had hit a standstill in

14:06

the state. Large-scale projects

14:08

were getting blocked and virtually none

14:10

had been built, and state

14:12

officials like Governor Cuomo wanted to keep

14:14

local governments from standing in the way

14:16

of the state's climate goals. And we

14:18

are going to start the most ambitious

14:20

climate change program that any state has

14:23

ever undertaken. In April 2020,

14:25

the state passed a law to

14:27

accelerate large-scale renewable energy projects. It

14:30

created a brand new agency to

14:32

help solar developers fast-track through the

14:34

permitting process. And it would

14:36

also allow developers to override local

14:38

laws and restrictions, like the one

14:40

in Copayk. It is a top

14:43

priority, because if you

14:45

don't save the planet, everything

14:47

else is a row. And

14:50

that's when HECADES representatives returned to Copayk

14:53

to meet with the town board. They

14:56

tell them they've already finalized a lease with

14:58

the Raswilers to build on their land. The

15:01

company had also secured renewable energy credits,

15:03

or RECs, from the state that they

15:05

planned to sell once the project was

15:07

up and running. Copayk

15:09

town supervisor Gene Metler and

15:11

deputy supervisor Richard Wolff are

15:13

furious. The way the state

15:16

has structured this law,

15:20

the towns who will bear

15:22

the burden of

15:24

these very large installations are

15:26

not given any say. Our voice

15:28

is completely overlooked. The state

15:30

has set up, in effect,

15:32

what Gene and I refer to

15:34

as the Wild West here, because

15:37

all that a developer needs to

15:39

do is find some willing landowners

15:42

who are willing to lease their land. You

15:45

know, neighbors be damned. The

15:48

town of Copayk became the lead plaintiffs in

15:50

a lawsuit against the state, funded

15:52

by unnamed owners. They

15:55

sought to overturn the new state regulations,

15:57

arguing they favored the renewable energy in

16:00

industry over local governments. The

16:02

courts eventually dismissed the case. As

16:08

word spreads about Hecatee moving forward to

16:10

Shepherds Run, residents who are

16:12

against the project start organizing. They

16:15

form a group called Sensible Solar for Rural

16:17

New York. Sarah Traeberman and

16:19

Stephen Futrell help run the group. It's

16:22

sprawling all over the place. And if you

16:25

think about what is, it's 267 acres, that's

16:28

equivalent to 202 football fields. They

16:32

also used solar farm, which, believe me, it's not

16:34

a farm. It is a farm today. It

16:37

would not be a farm the minute it

16:39

became a solar field. It's

16:41

seven solar fields. It's

16:44

almost like an octopus with seven different

16:46

fields going throughout the valley. Then

16:49

supporters of Shepherds Run form their

16:51

own group, Friends of Columbia

16:53

Solar. They say their goal

16:55

is to highlight the benefits of the

16:57

project and counter misinformation. We would love

16:59

to see this come out where the

17:01

community can come around, could come together

17:03

around it. That's Dan Haas,

17:05

one of the founders. You know, he's giving

17:08

up 1%. It

17:10

is only about 1% of the town's land

17:12

surface, really, that will be covered by this project.

17:14

That's always important to remember. For

17:18

the owners of the farm, Nancy and

17:21

Bill Raswiler, the pushback feels

17:23

personal. They decide to stay

17:25

out of the fray as much as possible. People

17:28

stop and talk to me and said

17:30

not nice things in the parking lot,

17:33

in the grocery stores. They would

17:35

say shame on you. And I'd say, well, that's

17:38

your opinion. And then get in my car.

17:40

It felt personal, and it got worse over

17:43

time. People saying that Bill's dad

17:45

would roll over in his grave if he knew what

17:47

he was doing. How dare we

17:50

do that to the town? Supporters

17:54

and opponents start putting up competing lawn

17:56

finds and set up dueling tables at

17:58

the local farmer's market. News

18:00

reporters descend, saying that

18:02

the solar project has pitted neighbor

18:04

against neighbor and divided the community.

18:11

By the summer of 2021, the

18:13

future of Shepard's Run was unclear

18:16

until something unexpected happened. We'll

18:19

try to bring together all

18:21

the stakeholders and see if

18:23

we can devise a list of changes to

18:25

the project or additions to the project which

18:27

would make it more acceptable to everybody. Residents

18:30

start re-envisioning a solar project

18:32

that Hecate and the community

18:34

can be happy with. That's

18:37

next on Reveal. Support

18:51

for Reveal comes from Odoo. What

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odoo.com/reveal. Odoo,

19:26

business management made simple. Farmland

19:31

loss in the U.S. is an urgent

19:33

issue. Every day, 2,000 acres of agricultural land are

19:36

paved over, fragmented, or converted to

19:39

uses that jeopardize farming. If

19:41

you eat food, this affects you. American

19:44

Farmland Trust's efforts have resulted

19:47

in the permanent protection of over 7.8 million acres of

19:50

agricultural land in the U.S., but there's more work

19:53

to do. Tools to protect farmland

19:55

exist, but they

19:57

are not enough. The U.S. Department of

19:59

Agriculture as aggressively as needed to

20:01

prevent the alarming loss of this

20:03

irreplaceable resource. We need to

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keep farming families on the land and

20:08

protect our national food security. What

20:10

can you do about it? Start with

20:12

being aware of the importance and

20:14

urgency of farmland loss. Support your

20:17

local farmers, learn about farmland protection

20:19

and share your ideas with a

20:21

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20:23

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20:25

federal Farm Bill. Together we can

20:27

save the land that sustains us

20:29

all. Learn more and take

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action at farmland.org. From

20:39

the Center for Investigative Reporting and

20:42

PRX, this is Reveals of

20:44

Outletting. I'm standing

20:46

right across from one

20:49

of the proposed sites for

20:51

the Shepherds

20:54

Run solar

20:56

farm. Last summer, Reveals

20:58

Jonathan Jones went to the Hudson River

21:01

Valley in New York State. And

21:03

today, we're bringing back his story about

21:05

Copac, the small town that's been

21:07

at odds over Shepherds Run, a

21:10

proposed large-scale solar project.

21:12

And I see one, two,

21:15

three, four, five, six, maybe

21:17

seven or eight red

21:20

lawn signs. They're

21:22

all red signs. The Shepherds Run

21:24

no jobs plus

21:26

tax breaks equals greed. The

21:30

Shepherds Run violates local law.

21:35

Shepherds Run removes farmland.

21:39

He talked to the neighbors who lived near

21:41

the site, like Bill Newcomb. Bill's

21:43

a fly fisherman who's been there since 1945,

21:47

when his grandparents bought a small farm here.

21:50

Shepherds Run is slated to be built in

21:52

his backyard, about 100 yards

21:54

behind his house. I have to get

21:56

up in the morning to look across that 80 acres of glass.

22:00

And the guy came and he was explaining

22:02

it to me Well,

22:04

we're going to do this. We're going to do that.

22:06

I can only compare it to the fact I'm

22:09

going to come in I'm going to

22:11

destroy everything you have and there's

22:13

nothing you can do about it Down

22:17

the road lives Hannah Mandel a

22:19

retired schoolteacher from New York City She

22:22

calls this area Shangri-La and

22:25

said the thought of seeing solar

22:27

panels instead of cornfields frightens her

22:30

there are lots of people who

22:32

say Nimby Nimby

22:34

Nimby and and the

22:36

people who say Nimby Nimby Nimby

22:38

they don't Write

22:41

right next door to it Hannah

22:44

says she's not a poet but she'll write

22:46

a poem when the moment strikes like when

22:48

she found herself Musing about the solar project

22:51

and wrote thoughts on a

22:53

sunlit winter day the

22:55

beauty of these winding roads riding

22:59

through forests of tall evergreen

23:01

and naked tree trunks standing

23:04

like statues Will

23:07

it all be destroyed in the

23:09

search of energy that could save the

23:11

world? Hannah says she

23:13

supports renewable energy development in New

23:15

York just like this one I

23:18

know all about climate change and

23:21

I know what people's concerns are

23:24

But I think that this

23:26

solar farm would destroy a

23:29

community One

23:32

of the things that gets my blood

23:34

boiling fastest is Bradley

23:42

Pitts lives just up the hill he

23:44

moved here with his family during the pandemic He

23:47

splits his time between Copac and Brooklyn.

23:50

It's not my first choice of

23:52

things to look at I

23:54

also think beauty's in the eye of the

23:56

beholder. I think of my kids. I think

23:59

of sea level am I going

24:01

to say you deal with

24:03

these consequences because I don't want to look at it?

24:05

To me that's trying to operate

24:07

as if we're in some sort of bucolic

24:09

bubble here and ignore the global

24:11

factors. But the whole point of climate change

24:13

is there is no bubble, there is no

24:15

escape. The tensions

24:17

over solar and copayc are playing out

24:20

across the country. What's

24:22

different about copayc is what some residents

24:24

decided to do about it. Jonathan

24:27

picks up the story where things started

24:29

to change. Meredith

24:33

Kane was sick of the fighting over Shepard's

24:35

run. My view was

24:38

always, where's

24:40

the balance? Meredith is

24:42

a copayc resident, real estate attorney, and

24:45

a member of Sensible Solar for Rural

24:47

New York, the group that

24:49

opposed the project. But she

24:51

thought it's wrong to just say no. We

24:53

have no principled way to say, no,

24:56

don't do it here, do it elsewhere,

24:58

unless the site is completely inappropriate.

25:01

But if there's a way to make the

25:03

site workable and

25:06

a way that the energy

25:08

can be developed here, everybody's got to

25:10

take their fair share. You

25:12

know, everybody's got to do their part. It

25:16

was the fall of 2021, almost

25:18

five years since Hecate first presented the idea

25:20

of Shepard's run to the town board. The

25:23

company's developers were back in copayc. They

25:26

told town officials they were getting ready to

25:28

apply for a state permit to begin work

25:31

on the project. The

25:33

company had spent months reworking the design.

25:36

The project area would be cut in half, down to

25:38

220 acres. There

25:40

would be more wildlife-friendly fencing, no

25:43

battery storage, and more trees and

25:45

shrubs. The developers said

25:47

the project would bring in around

25:49

$5 to $7 million in taxes

25:51

and create roughly 120 construction jobs.

25:55

They hoped the changes would be enough to

25:57

win the community's support. the

26:00

Copate Town Board was not impressed.

26:03

Copate's position today is as it

26:05

was two years ago. The

26:07

town opposes the project as it

26:10

is currently proposed. That's supervisor

26:12

Gene Metler on WAMC, the

26:14

local public radio station. Now

26:17

HECADI doubts that they have reduced the

26:19

area, but they have not compromised a

26:21

single mega one. Meredith

26:25

reached out to supporters and opponents

26:27

of the solar project to try

26:29

to bring them together. One

26:32

person who got an invite was Dan Hoss.

26:34

He helped organize the local group backing

26:37

the project. I'm Meredith Kane, she's an

26:39

old friend, and she

26:42

began to advocate for this idea of a

26:44

working group, bring together all

26:46

the stakeholders, and see if we

26:48

can devise a list of changes to the

26:50

project or additions to the project, which would

26:52

make it more acceptable to everybody. One

26:54

of the first meetings of what would become

26:57

the Copate Working Group was in Meredith's living

26:59

room. It started with a

27:01

simple question. What brought you to Copate?

27:03

What do you love about Copate? It's

27:05

a softball question that everybody can answer and

27:09

emphasizes the commonalities that we

27:11

have. Over

27:14

the next three months, the working group

27:16

brought in conservation groups and experts from

27:18

the area. Together, they mapped

27:20

out their main concerns and brainstormed

27:22

solutions. Thank

27:25

you, everybody, for taking time tonight

27:27

and joining us. In

27:29

February 2022, the working group presented

27:31

its plan in an online meeting

27:33

with local residents, the town board,

27:35

and HECADI's new project manager, Alex

27:38

Campbell. Meredith and the

27:40

working group hoped HECADI would incorporate

27:43

some of their suggestions before formally

27:45

filing its application with the state.

27:48

Tonight's forum is actually sponsored

27:50

by four different groups who

27:52

have all been working collaboratively

27:55

to talk about and really try to focus on

27:57

what would it take to make the Shepherds Run

27:59

project. project, one that could actually

28:01

be a win-win for Copac and

28:04

the whole Copac community. The

28:06

working group proposed four general areas

28:09

for improvement. First, they

28:11

wanted Hecadie to do more to protect

28:13

the environment. The new plan

28:15

called for hiking trails and community green

28:17

spaces on the land. They also

28:20

wanted guarantees that Hecadie would not clear

28:22

cut any trees. Here's Bradley

28:24

Pitts, a neighbor of the proposed site

28:26

presenting that part of the plan. What

28:29

if there's a loop where you can go from the school,

28:32

along the rail trail, into the

28:34

wetlands by bringing you

28:36

up close to the panels so

28:39

that you're really experiencing the

28:41

richness of this site, which

28:43

is kind of a great

28:45

little microcosm of Copac at

28:47

large. The second thing

28:50

the working group wanted was for Hecadie

28:52

to integrate farming among the solar panels

28:55

and invest in educational programs where

28:57

local students could learn about these

28:59

techniques. Third, they

29:02

wanted Hecadie to do more for the nearby

29:04

homeowners. They proposed offering

29:06

compensation and creating a more

29:08

robust landscaping plan. Especially in the southern

29:10

part of the project, we talked about

29:13

how to protect the neighbors who are

29:15

most exposed by not cutting down a

29:17

big patch of trees that's directly in

29:19

the review. And finally,

29:21

the working group wanted more benefits for

29:23

the whole community, like lower

29:25

electricity bills, solar panels for the

29:27

high school, and for Hecadie to

29:29

pay full property taxes to the

29:31

town, county, and school district. Immediately

29:38

after the presentation, everyone seemed

29:40

enthusiastic, including Alex Campbell

29:42

from Hecadie. I want

29:44

to stress that myself, Hecadie

29:46

generally, we're

29:49

very excited to continue our work

29:51

with the working group and make

29:53

this a project we can all be proud of. Meredith

29:56

Kane said if Hecadie formally committed to

29:58

the working group's recommendation, the

30:01

project could win over the community, and

30:03

it could be a roadmap for solar developers trying

30:06

to build in other rural areas.

30:10

But that's not how things played out. Meredith

30:13

says when Hecady filed its application with the

30:15

state, the company ignored almost

30:17

all of the working group's recommendations.

30:21

We rushed to get all of this done before

30:24

they filed their first application, in

30:27

the hopes that we would see some

30:29

of these ideas reflected in the application.

30:33

Then we saw what the application consisted

30:35

of, and nothing was in there. Alex

30:38

agrees that Hecady's original plan didn't

30:40

reflect the working group's recommendations, but

30:43

he says the company spent the next several months

30:45

trying to incorporate as many of their suggestions as

30:47

it could. We went through each

30:49

point, and we figured out what we could

30:51

do at that time while

30:54

maintaining our permitting schedule.

30:57

Not every one of the recommendations were

30:59

included in our overall plan, but

31:01

we did a pretty darn good job getting as close

31:03

as we could. Meredith

31:05

says Hecady paid lip service to

31:07

the working group's recommendations, but

31:09

the company stopped short of putting them

31:11

into any legally binding agreement. They're

31:13

basically saying that'll be an afterthought. First, we're just

31:15

going to design the solar project, and

31:18

then if we can fit something in after that,

31:20

we'll think about it. But

31:23

you can't. You've got to design them together. Alex

31:25

says some of what the working group was asking for

31:28

was simply out of Hecady's control. I

31:31

can't tell a landowner to put a

31:33

trail through all of his property and

31:36

tie it into the solar project. That's

31:38

his land and her land, and they

31:41

can do with it what they want, right? And so

31:44

we had always said, for the things that were

31:46

completely outside of our control, we'd say we'll enable

31:48

a conversation, and everybody has to kind of give

31:50

a little, take a little, right? Hopefully at the

31:53

end of a negotiation, everybody

31:55

feels like they're a little slighted, right? Nobody

31:57

won outright. After

32:00

failing to come to terms on an

32:02

agreement, Alex left Hecady, and

32:05

the working group splintered. Sarah

32:07

Traeberman of Sensible Solar for Rural New

32:09

York said by that time most people were

32:12

fed up with the whole process anyway.

32:14

During the time of the working group, the

32:16

community was sort of taken as well by

32:18

that whole process. But I will say that

32:21

overwhelmingly at this point, most

32:23

people in this community just want this thing to

32:26

go away. We

32:29

could do this differently, and we should. Doug

32:31

Bissette, the community sustainability professor

32:34

from Michigan State University, says

32:36

for solar projects to succeed,

32:38

everybody needs to compromise. I

32:41

think there is an expectation that

32:43

every project should be built and

32:46

that the community is simply a

32:48

roadblock to be overcome. And

32:51

I think that's the way our policy

32:53

is developed. I think that's the way

32:55

developers treat communities. I think

32:57

that's the way often local officials

32:59

are required to engage with developers.

33:02

And I don't think that leads us to

33:04

where we want to be. In

33:06

his research, Doug found local

33:08

communities were more supportive if they felt

33:11

they had influence over the project, and

33:13

if developers directly engaged with them. They

33:15

really liked it when a developer came

33:17

to their house. And even if they

33:19

didn't have necessarily a friendly engagement with

33:21

that developer, they really liked having an

33:23

opportunity to influence what the project would

33:26

look like. Doug found

33:28

that some of the opposition to these projects

33:30

is driven by local concerns, things

33:32

like impacts on the environment and the loss

33:35

of farmland. But it's also driven by

33:37

something else, misinformation. Doug

33:40

says there are well-funded opposition groups out

33:42

there claiming things like solar panels cause

33:45

cancer, and solar panels generate heat that

33:47

makes climate change worse. If

33:50

you go online, you can see a lot

33:52

of what we call organized opposition that uses

33:54

a lot of fear-based tactics

33:56

and misinformation to promote opposition to

33:59

those projects. that has really increased in

34:01

the last couple years. He says

34:03

it's tricky to tell how much of

34:05

a community's opposition is fueled by misinformation.

34:08

But for a developer, the real question to keep

34:10

in mind is, are they

34:12

identifying concerns that are addressable? If these

34:14

are just concerns meant to either stall

34:16

development or basically create so

34:18

much fear around a project that it's gonna

34:21

kill the project, well, that's not really worth

34:23

addressing, basically, because it's not addressable.

34:26

Despite growing resistance to renewables in

34:28

farm country, solar development

34:30

is showing no signs of slowing down.

34:33

And there are a lot of incentives to get into

34:35

the business. I would love to

34:37

believe that the only reason we're

34:39

building wind and solar is because

34:42

we wanna decarbonize the grid. I would love to believe that

34:44

that's the only reason we're doing it. But that is

34:46

not the only reason we are doing it. These projects are

34:48

being built because they make money. And

34:52

the folks that get into this work do it because they think

34:54

they can make money and they can make money. In

35:00

late spring of 2023, the

35:02

Shepherds Run Solar Project in Copay

35:05

got yet another new project manager,

35:07

Matt Levine. I sat

35:09

down with him to talk about where Shepherds Run is

35:11

headed. Well, I think there's maybe a lot

35:14

of misunderstanding about

35:16

the project. A

35:18

lot of it is a

35:20

fear of change and they

35:22

might be latching onto

35:25

information that either

35:27

the project has changed or addressed

35:29

or is incorrect. Matt

35:31

says Hecate is making every effort to set

35:33

the record straight, though it's been

35:35

slow going. Have you met

35:37

with anyone from Copay who believe

35:40

they will be most adversely infected

35:42

by having tens of thousands of

35:44

solar panels sitting directly across from

35:46

their home? I haven't

35:49

met with the neighbors across the

35:51

street. We have both

35:54

a mailer and a joining letter in

35:56

the works. Many

35:58

of the people I spoke to. even those

36:00

who support Shepherds Run, believe that

36:03

if Hecatee had signed on to the

36:05

working group's recommendations, the community would

36:07

have gotten behind the project. In

36:10

light of that, I wanted to know

36:12

if Hecatee was reconsidering any of those

36:14

recommendations. I went through

36:16

the four main proposals with Matt, starting

36:18

with their suggestion for new hiking trails

36:20

and green space through the property. Would

36:23

the latest Shepherds Run plan include any

36:25

of that? I think

36:27

Hecatee has always been reticent

36:30

to commit to that in

36:32

part because it's not entirely

36:34

our choice. A green

36:37

space that the working group

36:39

originally recommended would require a

36:41

lot of ongoing

36:44

effort and maintenance and someone that would

36:47

truly need to take responsibility to

36:49

take that on. I asked

36:51

about compensating nearby homeowners. There

36:54

are no plans to compensate neighboring

36:56

landowners at this time. What about

36:58

farming and grazing under the solar

37:00

panels? Matt says Hecatee

37:02

has sheep grazing under another solar project

37:04

in New York, but at this time

37:07

for Shepherds Run, they can only

37:09

commit to looking into the feasibility of it.

37:12

Finally, I asked them about the proposals

37:14

for improving community benefits, things

37:16

like lowering the local electricity bills

37:18

and paying full property taxes. He

37:22

said Hecatee has no control over

37:24

Copac's electricity bills. As

37:26

for the property taxes, Matt says

37:28

they're still working it out. Does

37:30

the more commitments Hecatee makes make

37:33

it harder to sell to someone

37:35

because they're then obligated to then

37:38

follow through on these commitments? Yeah,

37:40

inevitably someone wanting to

37:42

purchase a project will have to

37:44

underwrite the economics of the deal.

37:46

Hecatee has

37:50

a duty to make the

37:52

project attractive and investable while

37:55

also trying to do the best

37:57

they can to appease the public.

38:01

request of constituents. At

38:04

the end of the day, it's a business. Solar

38:07

developers need to see a return on their

38:09

investment. The more they spend to

38:11

meet the needs of a community, the less

38:13

profit they make, and the harder

38:16

it may be to sell that project to

38:18

an operator once it's completed. In

38:21

early 2024, the state rejected the

38:23

Shepherd's Run application after

38:25

a slice of the proposed project

38:28

area was unexpectedly sold off. Despite

38:31

the setback, HECEDI remains determined to move

38:33

forward on the project. Levine

38:36

says HECEDI is preparing a second filing that

38:39

incorporates more feedback and aims

38:41

to meet all regulatory requirements.

38:44

The future of Shepherd's Run remains as

38:46

unclear as ever. We have

38:49

adjusted this project to

38:51

appease various stakeholders,

38:54

inevitably you can't

38:57

make everybody happy. I've never worked on a project

38:59

where 100% of the

39:02

constituents were for the project. But

39:04

our hope is that we can continue to

39:07

work to make this the

39:09

best project it

39:11

can be. Solar

39:16

energy development raised red flags for

39:18

people in Copic. But

39:20

experts say it doesn't have to be that

39:22

way. If we find the right

39:25

land, if we engage communities correctly, I

39:28

think solar can be a very big

39:30

contributor to fighting climate change in

39:33

this country and around the world. That's

39:35

next on Reveal. Imagine

39:54

a world without rainforest. Imagine

39:58

a world where the only... place

40:00

tigers can roam is behind metal

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bars and orangutans swing

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the world's last remaining rainforest

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by challenging corporate power. Right

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like palm oil, soy, beef,

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make the products lining the shelves at your

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local grocery store. And

40:32

with every acre lost, endangered

40:34

species are pushed closer to

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extinction. But you

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can change the future

40:41

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40:55

brands are driving deforestation and what you

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can do to stop them at ran.org/rainforest.

41:09

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41:53

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41:55

PRX, this is Reveal. I'm

41:57

Al Edson. has

42:00

been thinking about the environment almost

42:02

his entire life. Got

42:04

started actually in

42:07

junior high school with the first Earth Day.

42:09

I ran the Earth Day celebration back

42:11

in 1970. He

42:14

grew up about three hours from Copac in

42:16

Syracuse, New York, near one of the most

42:18

polluted lakes in America. Now,

42:20

as an adult, he's a national

42:23

expert on renewable energy. Under

42:25

President Clinton, Dan oversaw renewables

42:27

for the Department of Energy and

42:29

went on to lead Google's climate

42:31

initiatives. Today, he's a

42:34

senior energy scholar at Stanford University,

42:36

focusing on solar power in the

42:38

U.S. It is an important

42:40

moment thanks to Congress and the White

42:43

House, but it's not going to last

42:45

forever. Dan thinks

42:47

the influx of federal funding

42:49

available right now is

42:52

a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We have

42:54

billions and billions of dollars

42:56

available to really get

42:58

solar deployed at massive scale, finally to

43:00

the scale where it really will have

43:03

some impact on the climate crisis. Now

43:05

the question is, how do we build

43:07

these solar projects with the least amount

43:10

of controversy, with the strongest public support,

43:13

and really get to a point where solar

43:15

is weaning us off of fossil fuels?

43:18

In 2021, Dan was speaking with a

43:20

friend of his who heads up the

43:22

main lobbying group for the solar industry.

43:25

She told him that building

43:28

large-scale projects was becoming increasingly

43:30

difficult. She wondered if it

43:32

would be possible to bring stakeholders together

43:35

at the national level to figure out

43:37

how to address the concerns. If

43:39

you were to sit the solar developers

43:42

down with the environmental and

43:44

land conservation community, what

43:46

kind of real-world impacts could it have? So I

43:48

said, well, let's explore it. That

43:52

conversation led Dan to create the

43:54

first of its kind coalition. It

43:56

includes solar companies, agricultural organizations, and

43:59

environmental organizations. mental groups, and

44:01

a part of their goal is to collectively

44:03

agree on how to make the most of

44:05

this moment. To literally find

44:08

common ground. The stakes

44:11

are extraordinarily high. The

44:14

climate crisis looms large. The

44:17

time frame in which we can really address

44:19

it is relatively

44:22

brief. We've got to get on top of

44:24

this in years, not

44:26

decades or centuries. Dan

44:30

and his coalition are part of a larger

44:32

effort that's spreading. From

44:34

academics to researchers to farmers and

44:36

landowners, people are trying to

44:39

improve the ways we do solar development.

44:42

Reveals Jonathan Jones looks at some of

44:44

those efforts. When

44:47

I spoke with Dan, he told me that

44:49

the U.S. needs around 10 million acres of

44:51

solar to reach its climate goals. More

44:54

than 80% of that future solar development

44:57

is expected to be built on farmland. Ten

45:00

million acres is a lot of land.

45:03

It's the entire acreage

45:06

of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and

45:08

Rhode Island combined. But

45:11

all the agriculture land in the

45:13

U.S. is just under a billion,

45:16

billion with a B, acres. We

45:19

need roughly 10 million acres.

45:23

It's both a lot of land, and it's

45:25

not very much land at all, depending

45:28

upon what you're comparing it with. The

45:31

trick is to avoid situations like Copake, where

45:33

the community put up a fight because they

45:35

felt like the solar developer wasn't paying attention.

45:38

We need to have everybody with us,

45:40

because every lawsuit and,

45:42

you know, every challenge is going to

45:44

slow things down and make it more

45:47

and more difficult to reach our goals.

45:50

That's New York State Assemblymember Dee Dee Barrett.

45:53

After seeing the fight in Copake and other

45:55

towns in upstate New York, she authored a

45:57

bill to help local communities identify land for

45:59

large areas. scale solar development. It

46:02

passed the New York State Legislature in June 2023

46:04

and was signed

46:06

into law later in the year. We

46:08

have very ambitious goals in New York State and

46:11

the way we're going to reach them

46:14

is to have everyone as

46:16

much as possible rowing in the

46:18

same direction. And across

46:20

the state and the country, farmers are

46:22

coming up with creative ideas to make

46:24

solar work. In another part

46:26

of New York, in Ithaca, the

46:29

American Solar Grazing Association is teaching

46:31

farmers how to raise and graze

46:33

sheep under solar panels. Most

46:35

of us who have to move our sheep

46:38

and rotationally graze them around, you're constantly

46:40

trying to find shade for them and

46:42

wind breaks. The solar is

46:44

so much better. There's so much less stress. One

46:47

of the founders, Lexi Hain, says

46:50

this means farmers who raise sheep can

46:52

get the benefits of solar while still

46:54

producing milk, meat and wool. Just

46:58

outside Boulder, Colorado, farmers

47:00

have found a way to marry crops and

47:02

solar panels. The sun nourishes

47:05

us. It gives us energy. At

47:07

Jack Solar Garden, our dream is to

47:09

harvest that energy, not just once, but

47:11

twice. Jack Solar Garden

47:14

grows organic herbs, berries and vegetables

47:16

under 3,200 solar panels. Their

47:20

solar panels function just like a tree

47:22

canopy, protecting the vegetation underneath them from

47:24

hail and damaging winds. This

47:27

is called agravoltaics, pairing

47:30

agricultural production with solar

47:32

energy generation. And

47:35

in the Midwest, there's another idea taking

47:37

root, installing large-scale solar

47:39

projects on farmland that's already being

47:41

used for energy production, but

47:44

in a much less efficient way. Millions

47:47

of acres of farmland in the Midwest

47:49

are used to grow corn for ethanol,

47:51

a biofuel that's blended with gasoline. A

47:54

new hero is rising, saving

47:57

our future. our

48:00

environment, defending

48:02

America's independence. During

48:05

the energy crisis of the 1970s, ethanol

48:08

was promoted as a way to reduce

48:10

America's reliance on fossil fuels and

48:12

reduce carbon emissions from cars. You

48:15

can be a hero too. Ethanol,

48:19

renewable energy for your car.

48:23

Ethanol, fuel the change.

48:26

It's now being touted as the

48:28

best solution for reducing greenhouse gas

48:30

emissions from planes. The

48:32

problem is that there's growing evidence that

48:34

ethanol, at least as it's produced now,

48:37

may not reduce emissions, and it hasn't

48:39

weaned the country off fossil fuels. The

48:42

more we learn about ethanol, the more

48:44

we see the solution that

48:46

it was touted and initially thought to be. Paul

48:49

Matheson is an analyst with the

48:52

environmental group Clean Wisconsin. He

48:54

says that just like in Copac, he's

48:56

seen a lot of resistance to large-scale

48:58

solar development in his home state and

49:00

across the Corn Belt. So

49:03

he decided to do some math. We

49:05

wanted to push back on the

49:07

narrative that we need too much land for solar

49:09

and it showed that we're already using a ton

49:11

of land in Wisconsin for energy production. Wisconsin

49:14

uses more than a million acres

49:16

of farmland for ethanol production. Recently,

49:19

Paul led a study that asked the question,

49:22

which is more efficient? Is it

49:24

using corn for ethanol or solar? It

49:27

wasn't even close. Solar

49:29

blew ethanol out of the water. Paul's

49:33

analysis found one acre of solar panels

49:35

can provide 70 to 100 times more

49:37

energy than one acre of corn grown

49:39

for ethanol. And Paul

49:41

says Wisconsin would only have to convert

49:43

a fraction of the ethanol land to

49:46

solar to meet the state's clean energy

49:48

goals. There is a

49:50

huge opportunity to use

49:52

land that we're already using to generate

49:55

energy very inefficiently,

49:57

relatively inefficiently. replace

50:00

it with solar panels that will

50:02

generate a lot more with

50:05

a lot less of associated

50:07

other environmental problems. Paul's

50:09

study in Wisconsin could apply to other

50:11

corn belt states too. Iowa,

50:14

Indiana, Michigan, Ohio,

50:16

Nebraska, Minnesota, they

50:18

could all use this idea to help reach

50:20

their own clean energy goals. And

50:23

the economics also make sense for the

50:25

corn farmers. Paul says farmers can

50:27

make about $200 to $300 of profit per acre every year

50:29

to grow corn

50:33

for ethanol. If the land

50:35

is leased for solar, the yearly profit

50:37

can be anywhere from $750 to $2,000 an

50:41

acre. All

50:46

these ideas, while promising, are

50:48

happening on too small a scale to make

50:50

a big dent in the nation's climate goals.

50:53

And they will almost certainly require

50:56

additional incentives to be widely

50:58

implemented across the country. But

51:02

back at Stanford, Dan Riker says

51:04

the key players are one step

51:06

closer to finding common ground on

51:08

designing large scale solar projects. In

51:11

October, after 20 months of

51:13

discussions, the coalition he put

51:15

together of solar stakeholders reached

51:17

an agreement on shared principles.

51:20

A key element of our agreement

51:22

is what we call the three

51:24

Cs, climate, conservation, and community. Those

51:27

are the three key issues we've

51:29

got to address in every large scale

51:32

project. The coalition

51:34

hopes their agreement will lead to

51:36

better public policies that will improve

51:38

how and where solar developers put

51:40

their projects. Their

51:42

suggestions could end up in a lot of

51:44

places, in legislation on Capitol

51:46

Hill, with the Department of

51:49

Energy, and on tribal lanes. In

51:51

many cases, the stakeholders making those

51:54

decisions will already be involved. And

51:57

next, the group will be meeting to

52:00

craft specific materials. guidelines and policy recommendations.

52:03

One example is incentivizing solar

52:05

developers to build in areas

52:07

besides farmland like previously disturbed

52:10

or marginal land, brownfields, trash

52:12

dumps, and former mines. There

52:15

are millions of acres of those

52:18

kinds of land that in

52:20

some cases will cause less

52:22

controversy. You're not building

52:24

them next to people's homes. Dan

52:28

expects the coalition's agreements will end

52:30

up leading to specific best practices

52:33

that ensures solar development is done

52:35

with an eye towards conservation and

52:37

community, maybe even in the

52:39

coming months. He says we

52:41

need to move quickly. The summer of 2023 was

52:44

the hottest on record and what scientists

52:46

say is the primary driver of that, carbon

52:49

emissions, continue to rise. Dan

52:52

says that's where the Sun comes in. It's

52:55

our largest source of

52:57

energy on the planet and

52:59

unlike a decade or two or three

53:01

ago, it's really gotten to be quite

53:03

cost competitive. I'm

53:06

relatively optimistic because we're

53:08

putting smarter and smarter policies in

53:11

place and vast

53:14

amounts of money are flowing in the

53:16

direction of addressing climate change, both

53:18

public and private money. I

53:20

think these problems are quite solvable. We've

53:23

got plenty of land in the United

53:25

States. If we find

53:28

the right land, if we engage communities

53:30

correctly, I think solar

53:32

can be a very big contributor

53:34

to fighting climate change in

53:36

this country and around the world. Our

53:44

producers for this week's show are Jonathan

53:46

Jones and Bowen Wong. They had help

53:48

from Steven Rascone, Jim Briggs, Zoe Sullivan,

53:50

Mara Lazer, and Ejibe Meany. Jenny

53:53

Costas edited the show. Nikki Frick is

53:55

our fact checker. Victoria Baranetsky is our

53:57

general counsel. Our production managers are the...

53:59

Wonder Twins, Zulema Cobb and Stephen

54:02

Rascone. Score and sound design by

54:04

the dynamic duo, J. Breezy, Mr.

54:06

Jim Briggs and Fernando My Man,

54:08

Yo Arruda. Our post-production team includes

54:10

Claire C. Note Mullen. Our interim

54:12

executive producers are Taki Telenides and

54:14

Brett Byers. Our theme music is

54:16

by Comorado, Lightning. Support for reveals

54:18

provided by the Riva and David

54:21

Logan Foundation. The Ford Foundation, the

54:23

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur

54:25

Foundation, the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation,

54:27

the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the

54:29

Park Foundation and the Helmand Foundation.

54:31

Reveal is a co-production of the

54:33

Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX.

54:36

I'm Al Lettin and remember, there is

54:38

always more to the story. Feel free

54:40

to www.f if you'd like to find that session, I'd be super open for you,

54:43

we definitely appreciate it. Thank

54:46

you and come under its guidance. And hands-on

54:48

V Bharatischild Foundation. If

54:50

you appreciateSorry intens Twenty Nine faculty members and

54:52

faculty members it is very important to

54:58

develop the design

55:01

of this Juan � Rawls Foundation.