“New York’s so-called green energy experiment is quietly paving over the very green space that it claims to protect,” said Republican state Assemblymember Chris Tague.
Gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman reports that foreign companies are being handed American farmland to build massive solar projects on some of the country’s most fertile soil, in a region that barely sees the sun.
Thanks to Kathy Hochul, family farms are being wiped out, and landowners have no say.
John Rich is joining the upstate fight against Governor Hochul’s plan to rip up farmland with solar farms. She won’t do it where she lives in Erie County.
This ain’t going away. https://t.co/cQgoNXTnVZ
— John Rich🇺🇸 (@johnrich) May 29, 2026
It is destroying thousands of acres of prime upstate farmland. This is the same Gov. Hochul who won’t allow fracking because she pretends she cares about the environment.
This is what “Green Energy” looks like in New York under Hochul: destroying thousands of acres of prime Upstate farmland for Chinese solar panels that barely produce power in our climate.
Cider Solar is turning productive soil into an industrial wasteland — compacted ground,… https://t.co/WtFUAe9wK0
— Thomas Kellogg 🇺🇸 (@ThomasKelloggNY) May 31, 2026
A Democrat Law Allows Theft of US Farmland
Republican candidate for governor Bruce Blakeman and Republican attorney general candidate Saritha Komatireddy, in April, advocated for local control over “intrusive energy projects” that are impacting upstate New York farmlands.
“I was with the energy secretary just the other day, and we were talking about solar in New York State and how unproductive it is and how it doesn’t produce the kind of energy we need.
The Law That Allows Foreign Companies to Destroy New York Farmland
GOP lawmakers say that, since being introduced years ago and reinforced through state budgets since 2019, the Renewable Action Through Project Interconnection and Deployment Act, along with mandates stemming from the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, were anticipated to streamline renewable energy projects.
Instead, they said they’ve laid the foundation for the large-scale conversion of farmland into industrial energy sites. Many are solar panel farms. They have little to no benefit to their surrounding local communities.
“New York’s so-called green energy experiment is quietly paving over the very green space that it claims to protect,” said Republican state Assemblymember Chris Tague. “Democrats ran through the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act late into the night at the very end of the 2019 legislative session. They acted like they had to pass it to find out what was in. No real debate, minimal public input, just another Albany power play.”
“Agriculture has been a way of life for generations in this state,” said Assembly Minority Leader Ed Ra. “There are nearly seven million acres of farmland in New York. We’re watching that decrease quickly. New York has lost approximately 365,000 acres of farmland and 2,800 farms in the five years between 2017 and 2022.”
“Families and businesses are already struggling with skyrocketing energy costs, and the CLCPA is making affordability worse, not better,” said GOP Assemblyman Matt Simpson. “We cannot continue pretending these mandates are working when they threaten reliable power and drive up bills for hardworking New Yorkers. It’s time for honesty about the real costs and for the Legislature to reconsider unworkable timelines before ratepayers pay the price.”
Foreign Companies Ownership
According to CBS News, a bipartisan group of lawmakers recently introduced new legislation that aims to close what they described as “dangerous loopholes” allowing foreign adversaries like China to purchase American farmland and real estate near U.S. military bases.
“Food security is national security, and we cannot allow foreign adversaries like China to buy up American farmland near our most sensitive military and critical infrastructure sites,” Rep. John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican who heads the Select Committee on China and led the bill’s introduction, said in a statement. The bill has backing from members of both parties, with Democrats such as New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer and California Reps. Julia Brownley, Jimmy Panetta, and Mike Thompson signing on.
A Trump administration official told CBS News that tracking foreign land ownership continues to be a priority.
More than 40 million acres of agricultural land in the U.S. That is about 2% of the nation’s total.
Canada owns the most land, about 34% or 16.1 million acres.
- Canada 34.1%
- The Netherlands 9.9%
- Germany 5.9%
- Italy 5.7%
- United Kingdom 5.6%
- China 0.5%
- All others: 38.2%Via Grace Manthey / CBS News Source: USDA, Foreign Holdings of U.S. Agricultural Land report, data through 2024