Less food, more solar
This commentary was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.
In stretches of the San Joaquin Valley that rarely get enough water to grow food, farmers and ranchers faced with barren, parched land have the opportunity to generate a new crop: solar energy. But a bill that aims to incentivize more farmers to install solar panels has farmers split, writes CalMatters’ Rachel Becker.
Under a 60-year-old law known as the Williamson Act, farmers can enter into contracts with local governments that allow them to pay less on their property tax as long as they use their land for farming. To cancel the contract before the end of its term results in steep penalty fees.
But AB 1156, if passed, would enable farmers to suspend contracts and avoid fees if they use their land to capture solar energy, although their property tax would still increase. The bill would help the state reach its clean energy goals since generating solar power requires hundreds of thousands of acres.
Though some farmers welcome an alternative use for their dried-out land, others argue that the bill undermines farming regions and chips away at the adjacent economies that help the agriculture industry operate.