Update - we've had a few riders that didn't register for the ride by the deadline but would like to take on a Reserve ride - if you'd like to pay the registration price for the ride and access to the cue sheets and GPS files email kristina@mocoalliance.org. Your fall adventure awaits!

It was a different but joyful ride this year as cyclists tackled rides of 8-62 miles on their own over the first weeks of Fall. Here at MCA, we were both humbled and blown away with the number of riders that took part to support the Ag Reserve in its 40th year, including the intrepid folks above who sent in photos from both their 62 mile and 40 mile rides they tackled over the two week event.

We want to thank our riders, the farms that they visited along the routes, our board members who double checked routes and most especially the incredible Vivien Bonazzi, our ride chair who made it all happen. 

Who knows what the future will bring but we look forward to hopefully holding a "normal" ride next year to celebrate MCA's 20 years of protecting the Ag Reserve. 

Riders should have gotten a discount on our US-Made and incredibly soft 40th Anniversary of the Reserve t-shirts. If you missed the link - let us know - kristina@mocoalliance.org

Check out a few of the photos of the ride submitted to us below, including a turn by turn view of the 62 miler! More photos are on our facebook page.  (it's not too late to send yours in! kristina@mocoalliance.org)

Renewable energy is going to need to be part of the solution to climate change, but on the way to our renewable future, we need to be sure that holistic solutions balance natural systems, equitable access and transparency. 

ZTA 20-01 proposes up to 3 square miles of solar arrays in Montgomery County's 40 year commitment to farming and open space, the Agricultural Reserve, with scant protections for productive farmland, forests and water quality. See the full fact sheet and take action here. 

Among the benefits of the ZTA touted by its backers is solar energy for low income people in the county that are unable to access renewable energy. The Community Solar program allows for this but the ZTA does not stipulate that the power will go only to the Community Solar program, rather that it will be net metered. Net metered energy, once produced becomes part of the state's deregulated energy market and the resulting lack of transparency has created a wild west of 3rd party power suppliers now under investigation for predatory practices, particularly in low in come neighborhoods. 
Representatives of some of these same companies are the ones pushing for this ZTA in the Ag Reserve. 

The short story is told by the Baltimore Sunin December 2019 - "Maryland must crack down on energy suppliers that entice people into bad, pricey contracts." - and the Office of the People's Counsel is filing complaints with the Public Service Commission as a result.
Just yesterday two State Representatives penned an Op-Ed in the Sun "Switching utility companies means many low-income Marylanders paying more" - laying out the ways in which these companies lure low income people into adjustable rate contracts that are then paid by state and local energy assistance funds. This deregulation and the shenanigans it allows is costing all of us more but particularly harming the most vulnerable. The Energy Assistance Protection Act proposed in the piece is long overdue. 

Or WYPR- last February covering the price gap for green energy suppliers - Baltimore residents have been paying an average of 50 percent more than a regular utility customer - and at variable rates that always seem to be going up. From 2014-2017, this unregulated market (green and conventional 3rd parties) cost Maryland consumers $600 Million above what would have been paid to the standard utility (Pepco, ConEdison, BGE, etc).
​

A report from the Abell Foundation has dug into the details.  We were fortunate to attend a webinar with one of the researchers behind the Abell report, Laurel Peltier. Her whole presentation on 3rd party power distributors is here (pdf) .  Below, a few of the slides explained:

Laurel has broken out the top green energy companies and the percentage they charge over the typical statewide average price per kilowatt. Paying slightly more for renewables that do not have the subsidies of dirtier fuels makes sense, but 60% more? 70% more?  The 16 Million dollars at the bottom represents the total extra paid by those 43,877 residents to these 4 companies over the amount they would have paid the standard supplier in 2018 alone.

These suppliers are buying the RECs (Renewable Energy Certificates) from energy generators (with the deregulation involved these can come from the obvious wind, solar or the head scratcher- trash incineration). These cost around 1 cent/killowatt hour. ​However the adjustable rate of these evergreen contracts can go up considerably and without notice, not as a result of more power used, but the entire price structure is variable after the introductory rate period.  

1. This ZTA has enough protections for farms/water quality/forests, conditional use is not necessary and would slow the process of getting these projects up and running.

Fact:  Conditional Use is the only legal pathway forward for these solar arrays in the Ag Reserve. They are a public utility and as such fall under conditional use - same as radio and cell towers and power lines. The conditional use process takes an average of 6 months. If allowed as a limited use as written, forests are only protected on a site by site basis, farmers lose out on leases because they can't compete with solar companies and there is no mitigation for the erosion caused by these projects that will impact local streams. Read on for more specifics on each of these impacts.

2. “This is a Win-Win-Win for agriculture as crops can be grown underneath the arrays and rental proceeds will prop up struggling farms.”

Fact:   It is a lose-lose-lose for pollinators, both current and future farmers and the consumers who rely on them.While co-location of agriculture is mentioned in the ZTA, there is no requirement or incentive  for farming to happen under the arrays.  The area "must be maintained in a manner suitable for grazing farm animals." i.e - grass. The referenced Maryland "pollinator friendly" provisions of the state certification program are coming under fire from Clean Water Action and other state groups as certified habitat can still be routinely sprayed with pesticides. (See the scorecard here.)
-The ZTA has not yet been approved and already local landowners are receiving lease offers far higher- sometimes 10 and 20 times higher- than the going rate of agricultural land leases. More than half of the acres farmed in the Reserve are leased. So the economics will mostly benefit non-farming  landowners. According to some farmers, just the debate over this proposal has landowners not renewing leases with farmers in preparation for putting farmed land under commercial arrays. 
-In an attempt to increase local food production and land access we are keenly focused on pairing more sustainable table crop farmers with long term leased land through our Land Link program. Make no mistake - this ZTA will drastically hinder that effort. Bottom line – Should this ZTA pass, solar leases will out-compete farming leases in the only area of the county set aside for farming.
​

3. “But we have to meet our climate crisis now!”/ "We need a 100% clean grid!"
Fact: This is true.
That is why the county has completed a year long Climate Change Working Group study to chart a course toward reaching the County’s necessary goal of climate neutrality. The report is full of recommendations that are ready for the Council to put into practice now. The report, importantly, also expressly advises against siting solar on productive farmland/forests to protect the services provided by natural systems and secure future food system resilience.
As for cleaning the grid - our friends at Sugarloaf Citizens Association secured solar experts to look over this ZTA - 4% of the power generated would stay in the county (p. 8)- the rest would flow to the grid in other states.

4. “But the ZTA prohibits tree removal.”
Fact: Not so.
​
The ZTA leaves the protection of trees up to each individual site plan review as they come through the Planning Board. Increasingly granting waivers and exceptions, collecting fees instead of preservation, are the accepted  practice. 
In the town of Poolesville, 3 acres of forest were cleared to site a 6 acre array with no forest mitigation plan – we have asked the proponents of this ZTA for clarity on how that happened and are still awaiting a response. 
​

5. “But the energy will benefit low income people who can’t install solar at their own homes/ This is a Community Solar project.”

Fact: This is not Community Solar.
This ZTA does not provide for affordable and local Community Solar alone and that option was only added to the proposed ZTA after repeated requests. Community Solar is a specific state of Maryland program started in 2015 that benefits low income residents with locally produced renewable solar energy sold at locked in low rates. The ZTA does not require that the commercial arrays be part of this specific program. The projects can be, according to the ZTA current version - either Community Solar or net metered aggregate projects which are not bound by Community Solar requirements, notably consumer protection from predatory pricing, nor is the renewable energy consumed in MC bring largely fed to the regional power grid. In fact, this ZTA is being heavily promoted by representatives of third party energy distributors that are currently being investigated for predatory pricing.  Far more on this here. 
​

6. “The ZTA was amended to protect farmland already.” ​

7. “The ZTA protects water quality”
Fact: Water runs downhill.
While construction on stream buffers is prohibited, the ZTA allows these arrays on up to 15% slopes. Any cyclist will tell you a 15% grade is a sizable hill. This just about guarantees that runoff from construction and more and more frequent large rain events will end up in local streams.  Similar to the lack of forest protection, leaving these decisions to the site planning process relegates water quality to an afterthought in an area entirely on wells by design, most of them drawing from a federally designated sole source aquifer. 
​

While increasing renewable energy generation is important, balance must be struck with farmland protection and thriving forests. The Conditional use process is the way to do that. 

Let’s do facts as we deploy the systematic means to mitigate and adapt to our changing climate. The Reserve will serve as a critical tool toward achieving resilience in the decades to come.

At the Crossroads for the Ag Reserve
By Diane Cameron for the Montgomery Countryside Alliance
September 7, 2020

​Our County Council faces a choice on September 29:  help the solar industry develop in the Ag Reserve – or – affirm the core purpose of the Reserve and help new and existing farmers grow more food for local residents. 
To make successful rural policy, we must center rural people.
The COVID pandemic, on top of structural racism and economic inequity, has worsened the problem of hunger in Montgomery County.  To answer the need for local food affordable to low-income residents, our own Agricultural Reserve – one third of our County’s land area – holds the potential to become a major supplier of table crops to Montgomery County and the greater Washington, D.C. region.  Manna Food Center is an example of an organization working with Ag Reserve farmers to supply fresh fruits and vegetables to low-income families.