Urgent: 5% of each counties protected farmland and forests are at risk. Solar without conditions on farmland remains irresponsible. Personalize a letter today!

SB 931/ HB1036 are speeding toward approval before the General Assembly deadline. The Renewable Energy Certainty Act, would override all local master plan protections in the siting of community and industrial scale solar and battery storage installations.

Our advocacy has made a small difference, amendments made to this bill have put a cap on land for solar and battery storage in priority preservation areas (i.e protected farm and forests lands like the Ag Reserve).

Under this amendment, 5% of Priority Preservation areas can be used for solar or battery storage - that's 5,000 acres of the Ag Reserve open to solar with limited conditions, taken out of production for a generation or more.

That means this bill would still allow solar/ batteries on 5% of:

-Farms and prime soils (stripping of topsoil is allowed)
-Forests
-Stream buffers and slopes

As you might imagine, we are not celebrating this "compromise". However, an organization claiming to represent the Ag Reserve, the Fair Access Committee of Poolesville, a committee of the town of Poolesville, is transmitting to the bill sponsor that Ag Reserve residents and farmers are ok with this plan. If this plan is not ok with you - our senators and delegates need to hear from you - and quick. Click "start writing" to begin.

In Montgomery County, this bill would undo a carefully crafted compromise that allowed solar in the Reserve balanced with farming - ZTA 20-01. MoCo has allowed community solar on up to 3 square miles of sub prime soils (1800 acres) in the Ag Reserve, while protecting slopes and forests. This is in addition to the many thousands of projects in the county outside the Reserve. Other counties have also made balanced provisions for solar on farms- all undone by this bill. Battery storage is a real concern - an entirely impervious industrial use that this bill would allow in stream buffers.

There has been little engagement of  Maryland's farmers along the way with this bill - time is running short as the session winds down - can you quickly add your voice for farmland, forests and water quality?

Click "start writing" to send a message to MoCo's leaders in Annapolis.