We support local county planning efforts to foster sustainable economic development to complement Kittitas Valley’s farming economy. Our goal: Protecting productive agriculture lands and siting Solar Energy Projects. Please support Senate Bill 5206:
https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=5206&Initiative=false&Year=2021
In recent years, the states of California and Oregon have expanded the
ir solar production capacity while also protecting their prime farmland. In contrast, Washington State’s most productive farmlands are increasingly at risk of conversion to solar energy development. Despite the fact that counties like Kittitas County have successfully identified thousands of acres that could accommodate solar development without compromising farmland, Washington’s Energy Facilities Siting Evaluation Council (EFSEC) has created a loophole to overrule local county's growth management plans and agriculture protections. We can have both solar development and farmland protection: Please support Senate Bill S-0179 which removes EFSEC jurisdiction for siting solar energy projects on Agriculture Resource Lands of Long-Term Significance. Between 2001 and 2016, Washington State lost over 90,000 acres of agricultural land, more than 50% of which was the State’s best land. Farmland is essential for regional food security and agriculture exports; we cannot afford to lose more. Save our Farms is joined by Tahoma Audubon Society, American Farmland Trust and Kittitas County Commissioners in asking you to support protection of agriculture production for these reasons:
• Income and employment: Putting industrial solar on prime farmland will impact rural communities by reducing the income and employment in rural communities. In rural counties farm production is a primary economic sector. In Kittitas County we found land enough for both Solar and farm production. County planning identified over 280,000 acres of land suitable for solar siting that is NOT prime farmland.
• Carbon Sequestering: Agricultural land is an important tool for carbon sequestration. The typical agricultural land use in Kittitas County, hay production for export, is one of the best cropping systems for sequestering carbon. Exporting hay is an important part of Kittitas Counties economy and is significant in other Eastern Washington as well.
• State treatment of rural communities: EFSEC imposes their siting criteria on rural counties by ignoring the local zoning and designation of Agriculture Resource Lands. Studies show ample land for both solar and protecting farmland. Local governments should be a partner in the energy siting process.
