I'm suing New York State and ORES to protect the environment

Last week, my attorney filed a petition with the Supreme Court of the State of New York over the unlawful environmental redactions that cover up the true ecological damage of Fort Edward Solar.

You know, I can’t say that I imagined this is where the solar journey would take me when I attended my first Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) hearing in Fort Edward, New York at the end of September 2025. I knew I was witnessing bureaucratic evil of the purest sense. But I figured that, surely, news outlets and other environmental advocates were already on the scene calling out the ecological hypocrisy that would transpire at the Washington County Grasslands if Fort Edward Solar was to be awarded a final permit.

Along the way, I learned there was no one else. There was no one covering what was happening with ORES. There was no one poised to sue the state over one of the last grasslands of its kind throughout the Northeast. Neither the National Audubon Society nor the Grassland Bird Trust was, in the end, prepared to take a stand against industrial renewable energy in the face of ecological fallout.

“We believe in renewable energy,” they’ve all pathetically uttered to the measly press coverage that the largest issue facing rural Upstate New York has received.

I watched one after another get in line, afraid to upset the state from which their Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) money flows. I watched them look the other way on their own science, concluded from field research and data, that a grassland cannot function in the same way if its fenced off, fragmented, or fractured. I watched them all slowly pull back as we inch towards the final permit, which will be awarded to Boralex (soon to be Brookfield) this week as part of the unilateral ORES approach that does not factor in public sentiment, commentary, expert testimony, studies, or letters from legislators.

We had it all at Fort Edward Solar. We purchased an independent environmental assessment completed by PhDs and Professional Wetland Scientists. Hundreds of residents of Fort Edward stated their opposition to the project online and in person. I stood my ground against the developer’s law firm, Young/Sommer, who also works with New York State during an oral hearing earlier this spring. The Assembly representative in this district uploaded a letter opposing the siting of this project right to the ORES docket.

We did everything we were supposed to do. And it still wasn’t enough.

So the other advocacy groups quietly scurry into the shadows, wincing as they pretend this isn’t the end for the very grassland they have proudly proclaimed is ecologically significant in their newsletters where they ask for donations from people around the world.

The Grassland Bird Trust, in fact, settled with Boralex last week, accepting a “substantial donation” to mitigate “habitat” elsewhere. They made a deal over the annihilation of a grassland that is so significant that its destruction will cause landscape-level ecological loss hundreds of miles from this area. After finalizing their deal with Boralex, they withdrew their Appeal from the ORES record, leaving no one else but myself and my nonprofit that I formed to fight these injustices, the American Land Rescue Fund.

And fight I shall.

This is the first of many lawsuits to come against New York State, ORES, the DPS, and Jason Zehr, the Interim Executive Director of ORES while they feverishly search for a replacement for Zeryai Hagos, who unexpectedly resigned at the end of April.

This is a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) lawsuit against the DPS for failing to satisfy a simple FOIL I submitted November 2025 asking for the un-redacted environmental documents at Fort Edward Solar. Citing the Environmental Conservation Law (ECL), the DPS argued they did not have to show me these files. The ECL ONLY allows redactions over GPS coordinates of endangered species nesting sites.

Boralex has gone ahead and redacted everything from species descriptions to plants, wetland attributes, and Net Conservation Benefit Plan (NCBP) summaries.

The redactions are so extensive, unlawful, and lazily applied that it is impossible for the public and scientific community to understand the true environmental damage that will ensue at Fort Edward Solar.

So I sued. I formed a nonprofit to raise money to fund attorneys, and that’s exactly what I have done.

This is not a lawsuit that is intended to stop the entire permit process for Fort Edward Solar; but it’s a start, and part of a much bigger plan that I cannot share quite yet with you all.

Did I expect to be the “last man standing” with Fort Edward Solar when I began this fight in 2025? Not at all.

Do I welcome this kind of legal solitude with open arms while I do what’s right? Absolutely. The other parties who are watching me charge ahead on the open battlefield alone, shielding their mitigation money can watch on from the sidelines.

When there is a resolution with Fort Edward Solar, not one of them will be able to say they assisted in any way, murmuring in the background “we believe in renewables” while the “green energy” they promised us is resulting in irreversible ecological loss.

You can view our full petition here.

That being said, from the ORES ashes I have forged relationships with some of the most awe-inspiring, brave, intelligent, and courageous people I have ever met, one of them being my attorney. It has brought together those of us willing to take a stand for our communities statewide. I have made life-long friends and look up to many role models that have taught me a great deal in a short amount of time.

Though I may be the last man standing at Fort Edward Solar, I am not alone at all.

I will stop at nothing until every last corrupt, fraudulent, and money-grubbing person behind the biggest scam of our lifetimes in New York State is held accountable.

To those who have donated to my nonprofit since its founding this past fall, thank you immensely. I would not be able to do this without you. To date, I can proudly say we have not accepted a single cent from New York State or “big oil.” We’re running on nothing but donations from everyday people countrywide and a desire to see the “little guy win for once” as you all let me know in your handwritten notes.

So thank you.

The show is just beginning.

In honor of Memorial Day Weekend, thank you to those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom. I will not squander the freedom I have been given, and will work tirelessly to extend that freedom to the animals, soils, and waters of this nation that deserve to exist outside of industrial complexes.

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

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