The County Executive has launched a new Climate Smart program that asks residents to commit to small changes they can make to yield big results in emissions reductions for the county. 

More Information here

More to Explore:

-We worked with the MoCo Green Bank and Office of Ag to offer webinars and other resources for going solar on your home/business/farm

-Resources for homes on well and septic on how to save water

Data Centers are an entirely new (and unregulated) land use with massive resource needs:

• Many thousands of gallons of potable water to cool equipment 24/7
• Large areas of land to site warehouses - often taking farmland and open space
• Each data center has the constant, round the clock power needs of a small city - ratepayers can expect to see increases up to 70% in their bills in the next 5 years.
• When power can't come from the grid - that constant power comes from high emissions diesel generators.

Our digital lives require cloud storage but the rise of AI has made the need for data centers explode. Developers are looking all over the country and world for suitable places to site data centers. Maryland, particularly Western Maryland, with it's proximity to Virginia's 'data center alley' is appealing to the industry. 

But we have lots of questions about just where all these resources will come from and who ends up footing the bill. 

​That is why we support the Data Center Impact Analysis and Report Act (( HB270  SB116)) we are working with state and local partners in the Climate Justice Wing of the Maryland Legislative Coalition to support this and other common sense bills to protect our environment. We will be asking for folks to write in and testify on this bill - for now, please check out our fact sheet. 

How we use our prime agricultural lands matters. Flat, sunny, well drained soils are at a premium. Despite a compromise allowing solar in the Ag Reserve on non-prime soils as a conditional use in 2021, 2 solar projects are now applying to the state to end run the County's protections for prime soils in the Ag Reserve. All while solar companies inflate land values, putting acreage further out of reach for the new, diverse crop of local farmers in the only area set aside for farming. Above - a postcard to Ag Reserve residents offering 20 times what local farmers are paying per acre of land. ​

Background: 
Chaberton Energy has applied directly to the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) for two large solar projects  of 3-4 mw facilities in the Reserve - almost entirely on on prime farm soils in contradiction to the County’s zoning provisions. Much more about the Sugarloaf and Ramire proposals here.

Next Up 
The project proceeds at the PSC, MCA with partners have been granted intervenor status and we are mounting a defense of prime soils and our master plan. 

​Bonus: Misconceptions at the Planning Board
The ZTA is the factor preventing solar projects - false
 At the 1/9 hearing the Planning Board discussed whether and how to ask the Council to revisit the zoning provision for solar in the Reserve - ZTA 20-01 – with several board members arguing that only two projects being built in the Reserve since 2021 is cause for opening all prime soils to the industrial use.

The Planning department's own report (p.9) in December 2023 identified that zoning is not the central  issue holding back construction of new arrays. Instead, a long waitlist for interconnection with the utility and grid operator are the largest hurdles to making proposed arrays a reality. 

In fact PJM - the grid operator for much of the Mid-Atlantic - has the most severe backlog of new generation projects of any grid operator in the country - "projects entering the queue today have little chance of coming online before 2030."
All the same, more projects are being proposed through the county's conditional use process - including on sub-prime soils in Barnesville.

Agrivoltaics make this an Accessory to Farming - false
In the September 5 public hearing the planning board had asked the applicant, Chaberton Energy, to come up with an agrivoltaics plan. Their draft request for proposals (RFP) is here. 
The RFP visions that farmers might grow crops in the 7 feet between arrays and harvest them by hand. Water might be available - it might not be and no plants can be over 2.5' high.  It is clear that farming is an afterthought here - an opportunity to say that farming opportunities were offered but no farmers were able to meet the criteria of what becomes the industrial use supplanting agriculture.

The RFP says that this offer of free "farmland" in 7-foot strips will make a difference for the large number of farmers seeking affordable land. All while Chaberton is seeking approval for a project that takes prime soils out of farming for at least a generation in conflict with the master plan and drives up the cost of other unencumbered farmland that might have been available for these producers. (Check out our Land Link program to see local farmers seeking long term leases).

What do Ag Reserve farmers think about agrivoltaics? The Office of Ag says local farmers, like many, are seeking more data before embracing farming under solar arrays. OAGs thoughts about the Agrivoltaic RFP here.  The office wants to be clear that the office did not help draft the plan or sign off on the project in any way. 

MCA and colleagues  have  repeatedly asked that the County invest in a full-fledged agrivoltaics demonstration project on county land that can provide key data on whether compatibility of table crop and livestock production and solar arrays in our specific growing conditions.
Board member Hedrick said, “ we're talking about allowing a use on the AG Reserve that's a better use than anything that's currently going on on the acreage that's being proposed. Right here no one's talking about taking anything [sic] think about offering up an option for use of the AG Reserve which is inarguably both economically and environmentally a better use than most of it's currently put to.” 
This view represents a lack of knowledge of the agricultural production, supporting businesses, and ecological services that serve in the Reserve.