Hamby, an elected board member at the Imperial Irrigation District, offered a fascinating explanation for local opposition to solar projects. Solar farms are one way to soften the blow, the report argues. A recent report from the Public Policy Institute of California noted that growers there could be forced to take as many as 1 million acres out of production over the next two decades to comply with new rules against overpumping groundwater. Their concerns are place-specific, but they carry some common themes: Industrial energy projects are changing the look and feel of the places we know and love, and reshaping our economies against our will.Ĭalifornia’s San Joaquin Valley is another hotbed for this debate. But in many Western states - from Washington’s Columbia Basin to Colorado’s Eastern Plains - you’ll find farmers campaigning against solar and wind, just as they are in Imperial. It’s just one example of a conflict between renewable energy and agriculture playing out across the American West.įaced with growing opposition to solar and wind development on public lands - which can destroy sensitive wildlife habitat - energy companies are increasingly turning to farming communities. Or not, if local landowners who oppose solar succeed in derailing development. Solar projects could be a key strategy for retiring some farmland and leaving more water in Lake Mead. What happens in Imperial matters to everyone else in part because of the valley’s startlingly large draw on the Colorado River, which supplies 40 million people across seven states.
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