Typically when there’s a mad dash for mountains of money, whether it be in the form of credits, subsidies, back-door deals, lobbyist contracts, or private arrangements with foreign countries, eventually, someone is going to get sloppy.
There’s been a significant mad dash for green energy money in New York State since the 2019 Climate Act was passed on nothing but virtue-signaling, tossing science to the wayside.
That mad dash worked for a while. Local media in New York State is terrified to openly report on our governor. With a one-party-rule holding the state hostage, there are no checks and balances on our executive branch of government.
That’s how the Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) has been able to wage war on rural Upstate New York. There are no New York governmental bodies that are willing to stand up to a bureaucratic shadow agency that takes its orders from the governor’s office.
Knowing that to my core by the end of 2025, I knew the only chance we had here to save our farmland and grassland habitats from foreign solar and wind complexes was twofold:
sue these people into oblivion
engage the federal government
We (American Land Rescue Fund) have sued twice to fulfill my commitment to the first point. Montgomery County has sued seven times in three months over Mill Point Solar and Flat Creek Solar. Everyday Upstaters are using what funds they have, desperately pooling them together to fund litigation that they hope and pray can make its way through a court system that’s been stacked in favor of our one-party-rule.
Next up: engage the federal government.
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Bring in the feds
As fate would have it, only 8-weeks ago, I decided to start posting my written content from Facebook and Substack to X. It didn’t take long before John Rich and I connected. I knew he was active online helping farmers and landowners… but I had no idea he was about to be appointed as the Special Envoy for American Landowners by this current administration.
I could call that good luck… but it wasn’t luck at all. I have posted to social media, reporting on ORES and green energy destruction in Upstate NY, every single day since September 2025. I knew, eventually, something would slip through the cracks and get to people more powerful than my pages.
And that’s exactly what happened.
John and I spoke on the phone a few times. We texted and I began to share my research with him. Many meetings later… and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and John Rich put their heads together to create a four-page letter that was delivered to Governor Hochul this weekend.
I will attach the letter, which Secretary Brooke Rollins posted to her X, here:
As you can see, the letter is signed by Secretary Rollins, Administrator Zeldin, and John Rich.
I strongly encourage everyone reading along with me here to take some time to read the letter in full. It says so much more than I can summarize for you on here.
The federal government is taking a two-part approach into what ORES has done to New York State. First, they want answers as it relates to NY’s own Mineral Soil Groups (MSGs) that it uses to site solar and wind complexes as opposed to the USDA’s system.
I wrote about MSGs extensively here last month.
Second, they want to know what the plan is when millions of solar panels reach their end-of-life service. Along the way, the letter notes that New York’s system “let’s foreign developers and manufacturers free-ride.”
I have been reporting on that through this Substack weekly since I found out about Fort Edward Solar sited for one of the last grasslands of its kind in the Northeast.
There is more than meets the eye with this letter
If you read the letter slowly, you’ll get the gist of what the feds are trying to do here. For legal purposes, I am not going to explain that in writing. Read between the lines.
As I anticipate some naysayers below telling me to “not trust the feds” and “to not get too optimistic,” I will end with this: I will, forever, be a stubbornly optimistic person who believes anything is possible. It is that very belief that I have held in my mind, alone, for almost a year that has resulted in this level of exposure. Please consider, for a moment, that there is much, much more at play here than just “a letter.”
It’s one hell of a letter is what it is. I am very grateful to Secretary Rollins, Administrator Zeldin, and John Rich for caring about what’s happening to Upstate New York. They very well could have moved on to a “red” state and left us to bleed out up here. But they didn’t.
And I am grateful.
This lays the foundation for battling destruction at the hands of solar and wind complexes, battery storage, and so much more. Have a little faith and patience. There is A LOT to come.
And happy 250th birthday to America. Our land is worth fighting for.
FURTHER READING
Our only option is to sue: 4 lawsuits filed in Montgomery County, NY against ORES solar
If the Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) will have its way with forcibly siting commercial solar in Montgomery County, New York, against the wishes of the residents, county attorney, and elected officials, then the county will play host to over 18,800 acres of panels anchored into prime farmland.
Grasslands are home to more than birds - they're essential hubs for endangered pollinators
Note: all of these photos are owned and captured by me, Alexandra Fasulo.
And then they came for our water: NY politicians push for panels over lakes, reservoirs
There are some days I sit here and think to myself: I couldn’t come up with this stuff if I tried. I am referencing the aggressive, haphazard, and dystopian push to blanket every inch of Upstate New York in solar panels.
Will be very interested in Hochul's response, or if she decides to stonewall. This could be a landmark action if it is successful in helping other states stop the lunacy of consuming enormous swaths of land for an energy source that in reality, has a capacity factor below 15% when all factors are considered.
I literally laughed out loud when I read "...mad dash for mountains of money." What an on point accurate description of the situation we are dealing with here.
In past ventures a letter like that from the EPA would have ruined my life. They are ruthless fighters with deep pockets, vast power, tons of attorneys and a "completely destroy the adversary" attitude. I was often amazed by the penalties I witnessed being dished out. Don't listen to the nay sayers, this is serious business. By the time this is over, many heads will roll.