A 2021 report by Partnership for Policy Integrity to the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) office concludes that solar projects that clear-cut forests and remove soils and vegetation harm — not help — the climate.
“Nothing much will grow here again in a human timeframe” – page 2
PFPI harshly criticizes the impacts of the state’s SMART solar subsidy program with regard to three proposed projects by AD Makepeace and Borrego Solar in Wareham MA. The projects are at 140 and 150 Tihonet Road and 27 Charge Pond Road.
“First, this project, [almost 200 acres of deforestation of Pine Barrens in Wareham MA] and the others going in, represent not a success of the state’s solar energy policy, but a failure. It is shocking to see that the state’s renewable energy policy is actually incentivizing forest clearing for solar. Climate change mitigation is not just about reducing fossil fuel emissions. Climate modeling is crystal-clear that we need to not only reduce emissions, but actually sequester CO2 that has already been emitted. Restoring and expanding forests is the only means under our control to achieve this at scale. Accordingly, anything that undermines forest carbon uptake is actively undermining climate mitigation. The state should not have a policy that pits solar against forests. Policies should offer incentives for preserving and expanding forests, not destroying them.”
Other resources here:
Cape Cod bylaw for land clearing
- Ground Mounted Solar in Massachusetts
- Solar Energy & Battery Fact Sheet
- Powers of Municipalities to Adopt Solar Laws in Massachusetts
- Ecological Impacts of Ground-Mounted Solar
- Solar Report 2017: Environment Watch of Southeastern Massachusetts Solar Report 2017
- Solar Done Right Fact Sheet
- Model Land Clearing, Grading and Protection of Specimen Tree Bylaw
- Species of the Coastal Pine Barrens (Massachusetts)
- Economics of Saving the Pine Barrens
- Webinars on Land Use and Ecology
Other relevant sites:
- Preserve Shutesbury (solar and deforestation in Shutesbury, MA)
- Save Massachusetts Forests
- Sensible Solar for Rural New York (“Sensible Solar for Rural New York is a coalition of concerned citizens in rural Columbia County, New York in strong opposition to the Shepherd’s Run Solar Project — a proposed 255-acre, industrial-size solar installation to be sited near New York State Route 23, Route 7 and Route 11A in Craryville and Copake, NY and adjacent to the Taconic Hills Consolidated School and Copake Lake community and recreational area.”)
- Citizens for Responsible Solar (Virginia)
- Center for Biological Diversity, Energy Justice Program (protecting biodiversity during the energy transition)
- Hoodwinked in the Hothouse (resist false solutions to the climate crisis, like industrial solar that destroys forests and farmland)
- MassWildlife’s Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program (information about the Pine Barrens ecosystem)