New York Public News Network | By Samuel King
Trump administration officials, including the U.S. Agriculture secretary and Environmental Protection Agency administrator, are questioning the conversion of farmland into solar projects in New York.
A letter from Secretary Brooke Rollins, Administrator Lee Zeldin and Special Envoy John Rich accuses New York state of violating USDA standards for prime farmland when approving sites for large-scale solar projects.
“When prime farmland is lost, it’s gone forever. That’s land our farmers depend on, land that feeds our families, and land that strengthens our nation’s food security,” Rollins wrote in a social media post. “Governor Hochul has 30 days to explain why New York is moving away from USDA’s prime farmland standards and what it’s doing to protect these irreplaceable agricultural resources.”
The officials want information on all solar projects approved by the state’s Office of Renewable Energy Siting, or ORES.
ORES has been a target of the Republican candidate for governor, Bruce Blakeman, and candidates running for the New York Legislature, who say the office is overriding local control and hurting the environment. Zeldin was Hochul’s Republican opponent in 2022.
Meanwhile, Hochul’s office defended its record on the issue and attacked the Trump administration for policies like tariffs and the war in Iran driving up fuel prices.
“This is yet another case of the Trump hypocrites trying to deflect attention from their own abysmal record on both energy and protecting our farmers,” said Ken Lovett, the governor’s senior communications adviser on energy and environment. “Under Governor Hochul, who has worked to preserve 134,000 acres of prime farmland, New York energy development is occurring only on land that is willingly leased by landowners.”
The governor’s office also said that mineral definitions for farmland have not changed since the 1980s.
According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, 0.13% of USDA prime farmland in New York is being used for solar projects.
Image: A field of solar panels on a farm in Henrietta in Monroe County. (Max Schulte/WXXI News)