Solar Power Depletes Farmlands of Rich Soil
Summary:
Solar energy is depleting farmlands of their rich soils in the U.S. Midwest. The solar industry is moving into the U.S. Midwest, drawn by cheaper land rents, access to electric transmission, massive federal and state incentives, and the region's wide-open fields. But Biden's renewable energy boom risks damaging some of America's richest soils in key farming states like Indiana. Reuters based the finding on an analysis of federal, state and local data, hundreds of pages of court records; and interviews with more than 100 energy and soil scientists, agricultural economists, farmers and farmland owners, and local, state and federal lawmakers.
Fast Facts:
Fast Facts:
- Driven by subsidies, mandates and federal and state policies compelling the use of more renewable energy, solar energy facilities are now displacing farmland at an increasing rate.
- While land leases generally offer protection for landowners so that farms can be reclaimed from the solar installations, in practice damage is already being done with remediation as long as 50 years in the future.
- The target for solar operations is increasingly in the Midwest, where government handouts to solar allow them to pay more to rent land than the farmers providing food for the nation.
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