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It's Our Future
UPDATE: At the 7-29-2024 Planning Hearing our Planning Commissioners voted 5 to 2 against a ban on Commercial Solar Farms in the zoned area of Reno County! To those who signed the petition, sent an email or spoke at the hearing against a ban, YOUR VOICE MADE THE DIFFERENCE!
While this is indeed progress, the reality is that our County Commissioners can override our Planning Commission with a super-majority vote of 4 out of 5 of the County Commissioners, and still indiscriminately ban commercial solar.
We still need your voice, NOW, to help stop a ban.
Email our Reno County Commissioners and ask them to trust our Planning Commission, and let them do their jobs to develop responsible, effective, and fair commercial solar farm regulations that will protect and benefit every resident.
✉️ Email our Reno County Commissioners today!
Subject: Please trust your Planning Commission.
Example: Please do not override your Planning Commission with a super majority vote and indiscriminately ban commercial solar in the zoned area of Reno County. Trust your Planning Commission to do their jobs. Let them develop responsible, effective, and fair commercial solar farm regulations that will protect and benefit every resident.
✉️ Daniel Friesen -District 3 daniel.friesen@renogov.org
✉️ Don Bogner -District 5 don.bogner@renogov.org
✉️ John Whitesel -District 4 john.whitesel@renogov.org
✉️ Randy Parks -District 1 randy.parks@renogov.org
✉️ Ron Hirst -District 2 ron.hirst@renogov.org
OR copy/paste as a group:
daniel.friesen@renogov.org, don.bogner@renogov.org, john.whitesel@renogov.org, randy.parks@renogov.org, ron.hirst@renogov.org
Remember to place your name and address at the bottom of your email
Feel free to alter this example email
Always be courteous and respectful, and try to present facts not emotions.
☀️ Solar Farm Bans...
Anti-Fact:
There is ample empirical evidence to show that solar farms present an incredibly low risk to the land. Lower than agriculture. MUCH lower than fossil fuels. Properly regulated, solar farms make great neighbors, reduce CO2 emissions, and diversify our energy portfolio. Our children are going to inherit an ever warming world, with more limited natural resources, and a greater demand for electricity. For future generations to prosper, we must add significant amounts of renewable energy now, while fossil fuels are still cheap and abundant.
Anti-Farmer:
Property rights matter. Solar leases can be a lifeline to keep land in the family and support overall farming operations. Kansas farmers and landowners are proud producers; whether it be grain, livestock, or energy. They should be allowed to use their land to produce, without unwarranted governmental interference. Solar farms preserve farmland for generations to come. Land leased to solar farms can't be converted to low density suburban sprawl, which is the number one threat to agricultural lands nationwide.
Anti-Taxpayer:
County governments are aggressively looking for cost savings and implementing budget cuts. Yet, lacking any compelling evidence, they are willing to turn away millions of dollars in direct income and economic development by indiscriminately banning commercial solar. These bans, based on politics, emotions and fear, negatively impact ALL taxpayers in the county.
Condensed History of the Proposed Ban
The Reno County Planning Commission formed fair and sensible draft regulations for commercial solar farms. They were one meeting away from finalizing their work, late in 2023.
In December 2023 County Commissioners abruptly instructed our Planning Commission to halt the regulation process, using negative public input as the reason. County Commissioners Ron Hirst, Randy Parks, and Don Bogner are leading the effort to ban commercial solar farms and in May of 2024 voted to instruct our Planning Commission to form new regulations to ban commercial solar farms in the zoned area of Reno County.
The Planning Commission is an independent body, who voted 6 to 1 to schedule a hearing to ban commercial solar farms in the zoned area of Reno County on June 20, 2024. Now we are in a public comment period, with a final public hearing and decision scheduled for July 29th, 2024. The Planning Commission will then take a vote and make a recommendation to the County Commission, who will either approve their recommendation, or attempt an override with a super majority vote.
At the Reno Planning Commission hearing on 7-29-2024, our Planning Commission voted 5 to 2 against a ban on commercial solar in the zoned area of Reno County. The Planning Commission feels a ban is not warranted, and would like to build a set of effective and fair regulations instead. The ball is now back in the County Commissioners court. Will the County Commissioners override the Planning Commission with a super majority vote and ban solar? Or, will they allow the Planning Commission to recommend regulations instead? Stay tuned.
The public input asking for bans in 2023, from the official record, consisted of:
3 Reno County households asked to ban commercial solar countywide
10 Reno County households asked to ban commercial solar in the Cheney Lake Watershed
A local activist presented a 361 signature petition to ban commercial solar in the Cheney Lake Watershed
NOTE: There are over 25,000 households in Reno County. Public input is supposed to be one factor in the planning and zoning process; facts, evidence and compatibility with the Comprehensive County Plan are also factors.
Why the opposition to solar farms?
Do you remember back when renewable energy was something that our society aspired to, but was just outside our grasp due to cost and the limits of technology? It seems that once renewables became competitive and achievable, politics split us and anti-renewable fear/hate began to spread. This is not an accident. It is by design.
There is a war raging against renewable energy. As in any war, the first casualty is truth. Fossil fuels groups and mega-donors fund disinformation efforts and good well-meaning people unknowingly repeat these falsehoods, doing their best to short circuit solar energy projects, based on a foundation of untruths, such as fragile, short-lived and toxic solar panels.
This war is about market share. The tactics being used are the same ones the tobacco companies used for decades to fend off legislation: Fear, uncertainty, and above all, doubt.
A few good articles worth reading on this subject include:
🔵 The War on Renewables heats up across America (also covers a Kansas connection)
🔵 Inside the conspiracy to take down wind and solar power
🔵 Oil industry has sought to block state backing for green tech since 1960s
🔵 The right-wing groups behind renewable energy misinformation
Authors Note: You may not agree with these articles 100%, but they are thought provoking. We have to move past the marketing slogan of being "green" and realize that nothing humans do is actually "green". We have to truthfully evaluate where we are now, and where we want to go. What are the actual risks and rewards? Open and honest dialogue is needed, not slogans, hate, and knee jerk reactions. Fossil fuels play an important part in our life, both for burning and for making things. Thus, the fossil fuel industry must be a part of the dialogue.
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