In Tennessee this week, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins made an announcement that could have far-reaching impact on the spread of solar farms, even in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas.
Speaking after a Future Farmers of America breakfast in Lebanon, Rollins said there will be no more subsidies for solar energy panels that take up farmland.
It’s possible it could have a direct affect on such proposed solar farms as the one being fought in the courts in Wagoner County where NextEra’s Persica Solar is trying to overturn denial of a permit to build a 5,000 acre farm. It’s not known whether Persia Solar would attempt to seek federal subsidies should it win the court case.
Proposed near the town of Perkins, the Persia Solar farm would be located on farmland and it was one of the arguments made by opponents—that it would replace farm land. In her announcement on Monday, Secretary Rollins was critical of the Biden administration and its Inflation Reduction Act and solar panels which she contended are eliminating farmland in Tennessee.
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