Solar 📍

While I certainly welcome lower-cost solar panels, and would most certainly include solar power when I own my off-grid homestead, I am deeply concerned about the tens of thousands, and soon to be hundreds of thousands of acres of land being developed for industrial solar farms across the state. Information both on solar farms and smaller, more appropriate uses of solar technology.

🖼️ Photos 📽️ Videos

What New York’s ORES Actually Does

|

If you spend any time in rural New York Facebook groups or the “Internets” lately, you’ve seen it: a wave of posts warning about faceless state agency (Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Electric Transmission) is steamrolling local rights to blanket our farmland in solar panels. It might be one of the most misunderstood pieces of the energy puzzle in New York right now.

To understand ORES, you got to look at the law that created it.

Why ORES Exists: The need to build large-scale solar to address climate change and energy needs 👨‍⚖️

ORES stands for the Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Electric Transmission. It wasn’t created for making solar developers rich or to titillate the woke mind; it exists because of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) and the need to develop new carbon-free sources of electricity as we stare down the climate crisis.

State law requires minimization of future carbon emissions by mandating:

  • 70% renewable electricity by 2030.
  • Zero-emission electricity (without fossil fuels) by 2040.

The state is under a legal mandate to build infrastructure—fast. Solar is currently the fastest, most scalable way to hit those targets.

Why We Need Solar Now: Every Year Matters Right Now 😎

Scientists warn that we must significantly reduce emissions in the next few years to avoid the most catastrophic impacts.

  • Tipping Points: We are approaching “tipping points” where changes become irreversible (like the melting of Arctic permafrost or the collapse of major ice sheets).
  • Extreme Weather: Rapid warming is already fueling more intense hurricanes, prolonged droughts, and more destructive wildfires.
  • The 1.5°C Goal: International agreements aim to limit warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Exceeding this increases the risk of global food shortages and mass displacement.
  • Compound Interest: Carbon stays in the atmosphere for centuries. Every ton we emit now makes the future goal harder to reach; reducing emissions today is far more effective than trying to “clean up” tomorrow.

This urgency is why New York passed the CLCPA and created ORES to get solar farms approved, over local opposition. The state views large-scale solar and the ORES process as a fast-track emergency response to these immediate environmental threats.

ORES Handles Environmental Reviews ⚖

Under ORES, every large-scale solar project must undergo a rigorous environmental “vets” process before a single panel is installed.

  • Impact Mapping: Developers must submit detailed studies on wetlands, threatened species, and forest fragmentation.
  • The “Net Conservation Benefit”: If a project impacts a protected species (like the Short-eared Owl or Northern Harrier), the developer is legally required to implement a plan that results in a net gain for that species elsewhere.
  • Public Comment: ORES is required to hold at least one public comment period and a public hearing in the host community to hear environmental concerns from residents.

Key Environmental Protections in the ORES Process 🌎

ORES mandates specific protections that developers cannot ignore:

  • Wildlife Protection: Projects must avoid or minimize impacts on grassland birds and other at-risk wildlife. Construction is often restricted during nesting seasons.
  • Water Quality: Developers must follow strict stormwater management plans to prevent runoff into local streams and neighbors’ properties.
  • Decommissioning Funds: To protect the “rural character” long-term, ORES requires developers to post a financial security (bond). This ensures that if the company goes belly-up, there is money set aside to remove the equipment and restore the land to its original state.
  • Agricultural Mitigation: If a project uses “Prime Farmland,” the developer often has to pay a fee into a state fund dedicated to supporting permanent farmland protection in other parts of the state.

A Local Government “Steamroller”? 🏗

The biggest misconception is that ORES exists to ignore municipalities. In reality, ORES only steps in on large-scale projects (systems larger than 25MW). ORES only overrides local laws when those laws make a project physically and economically impossible to build.

For example, ORES often intervenes when towns pass “poison pill” ordinances, such as:

  • Impossible Setbacks: Requiring panels to be 500–1,000 feet from all property lines, which effectively wipes out the usable space on most parcels.
  • Height Restrictions: Setting a maximum height of 6 feet, which doesn’t align with modern, efficient solar racking design.
  • Total Zoning Bans: Prohibiting solar on all prime farmland or “active agricultural land,” which essentially bans the technology from the town entirely.

The standard ORES uses isn’t just “build whatever you want.” They look at whether local laws are unreasonably burdensome in light of the state’s climate and energy policy.

What is being approved? 👍👎

Over 30 major projects have been granted final siting permits by ORES since its inception. This represents more than 4 gigawatts of clean energy added to the state’s pipeline. There has been only one formal dismissal of a project application by ORES. The reason so few projects are “denied” at the final stage is that ORES uses a “redo” system rather than a “fail” system.

  • The “Incomplete” Barrier: ORES has issued over 50 notices of incomplete application. Practically every project that has ever applied to the office has been sent back to the drawing board at least once for missing data or failing to meet standards.
  • The Stealth Filter: Many projects never even make it to the official “application” phase. Developers often withdraw or abandon projects during the mandatory pre-application meetings if they realize they cannot meet ORES’s environmental or technical requirements.
  • The “Only One” Denial: The single project that was formally dismissed—the Shepherd’s Run Solar project in Copake—wasn’t rejected because of local opposition, but because the developer lost control of the land they intended to build on.

On average, it takes about 3.7 years for a project to move from its first initial filing to receiving a final permit. The state’s legal deadline only starts ticking after the application is declared 100% complete—a status that itself takes an average of three years to reach.

Thematic Map: Percentage of Green Cars
SVGZ Graphic: Median Vehicle Age
Map: High Point State Forest

Nobody is actually proposing solar farms on state land ☀️

|

Republican press releases being picked up by less then reputable news sources scream headlines like, New York Senate bill could open 11,000 acres of Livingston County forest land to solar and wind development.

However, that is not the case of the proposal at all. The bill, Senate Bill S4408, would do as the sponsors memo says:

“adds a new section 9-0508 to the environmental conservation law to allow the department to enter into agreements for the sole purpose of aiding in the interconnection of renewable energy installations which are located outside of reforestation lands and the transmission and distribution of electricity from those installations. Any agreement made for this purpose would be prohibited from interfering with the operation or use of the reforestation areas.”

In other words, it would allow power lines to cross state lands to assist in the movement of solar and wind power from nearby solar facilities across the state land. While it’s not completely clear if such a policy is prohibited currently – the state does from time to time permit the construction of power lines across reforestation areas – this explicitly makes it a permitted use on the state lands.

Here is the actual text of the proposed law. 

 § 9-0508. AGREEMENTS AND EASEMENTS RELATED TO RENEWABLE ENERGY INTERCON-
             NECTION.
   NOTWITHSTANDING  ANY  PROVISIONS  OF ARTICLE SEVEN OF THE PUBLIC LANDS
 LAW TO THE CONTRARY, THE  DEPARTMENT  MAY,  IN  ANY  LANDS  ACQUIRED  AS
 REFORESTATION  AREAS  BY  THE STATE IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION 9-0501 OF
 THIS TITLE, ENTER INTO AGREEMENTS, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO  LEASES,
 OR  EASEMENTS,  FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF AIDING IN THE INTERCONNECTION OF
 RENEWABLE ENERGY INSTALLATIONS LOCATED OUTSIDE SUCH LANDS AND THE TRANS-
 MISSION AND DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRICITY THEREFROM. SUCH  INTERCONNECTION
 RIGHTS  SHALL  NOT  INTERFERE  WITH  THE OPERATION OF SUCH REFORESTATION
 AREAS FOR THE PURPOSES FOR WHICH THEY WERE ACQUIRED AND  AS  DEFINED  IN
 SECTION  THREE  OF  ARTICLE FOURTEEN OF THE NEW YORK STATE CONSTITUTION.
 ANY AGREEMENT MADE AND ENTERED INTO PURSUANT TO THIS  SECTION  SHALL  BE
 RECORDED  IN THE OFFICE OF GENERAL SERVICES AND BE MADE AVAILABLE TO THE
 PUBLIC ON THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF SUCH OFFICE.

Is this proposal a good one or a bad one? That’s up to you to considered. I will note that the concept of the Hewitt Act is explicitly multiple use, with forest products and mineral products like oil and gas production having always been part of state forest management, along with hunting, fishing, camping, and watershed production.

Legally, as an employee of the legislature, I can’t advocate for or against this measure. But I can say, look at the facts as a whole, and read what the measure does and not what the politicians say it does. Indeed, this bill should not have generated much controversy, as while power lines can require a forest cut or impact scenic resources, their is a public comment and administrative review proceedings to ensure such decisions serve the public benefit.

Map: Empire State Topography
Map: Empire State Color Relief
Map: Rankin Pond