Jeff Tober
There’s no question that we need to significantly increase use of solar and other clean sources of energy as quickly as possible to meet New Jersey’s worthy Energy Master Plan goal of transitioning to 100% clean energy by 2050 and try to prevent the worst effects of climate change. Farms and farmland may very well play some role in this vital effort. However, we cannot jeopardize our rich and rapidly shrinking agricultural lands to do so.
Utility-scale solar developer Dakota Power has proposed massive projects on prime farmlands across New Jersey, including so-called dual-use projects they claim will bring both solar generation and agriculture development benefits, financial stability for farmers, and improved soil and crop yields theories that are far from proven.
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Solar panels are pictured on farmland in this file photo. (Andreas Gucklhorn/Unsplash)
This story originally appeared on NJ Spotlight.
Lawmakers have yet to resolve a case of competing environmental priorities: preserving farmland and forests or sacrificing some of them to bolster the state’s aggressive renewable energy goals.
The dilemma landed back before the Senate Environment and Energy Committee last week over an issue that has pitted clean-energy advocates and solar developers against land preservation proponents with both sides still seemingly far from reaching a consensus.
The panel approved the bill this past August, but Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex), the committee chairman, asked to reconsider it when there was no consensus for moving it further.