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.
Conveniently for New York State, what it classifies as “prime farmland” differs greatly from the USDA prime farmland soil classification system that it spent decades researching and updating. New York uses a Mineral Soil Group (MSG) system that it changes annually with the help of Cornell University to move soils around a scale that ranks them from 1 (best soil) to 10 (worst soil).
Since solar and wind corporations have to pay to mitigate prime farmland loss if the soils are ranked MSG1 through MSG3, many soils moved into MSG4 to MSG6 starting in 2021 when ORES began rolling out commercial solar and wind.
That brings us to the present moment in which ORES has a particular love of using Montgomery County as its ecological experimental “ground zero,” right alongside Genesee County, New York that has already been destroyed beyond repair with miles upon miles of solar panels.
Montgomery County and the town supervisors, as well as the county attorney, Meghan Manion, are putting up the fight of a lifetime, telling Albany, New York and the faceless bureaucrats that hide behind the ORES label: no means no.
Since ORES was created in a way where we don’t get to vote on who works there, call them, email them, or meet with them, we have been left with no other option but to sue.
That is why I formed the American Land Rescue Fund 501(c)(3) this past October to start raising money for our own lawsuits to defend the Fort Edward Grasslands from Fort Edward Solar.
To date, we have filed two separate lawsuits against ORES and the Department of Public Service for what they are doing to our state’s farmland and environment.
Montgomery County is the first county in New York State to formidably stand up to ORES and its unlawful environmental redactions, forcible siting, and “take” in the form of destroyed property values if every solar complex is allowed to be built.
In layman’s terms: the people of Montgomery County have balls.
Advertisement: Big Ag is taking away states’ rights, too
Corporations around the world are intent on stripping American citizens of their right to a free and unobstructed life regarding their energy supply… and their food.
Big Ag, particularly Chinese-owned Smithfield, is lobbying Congress as we speak to ensure they can steamroll how food is produced in our country forever.
This kind of corporate manipulation takes a toll on the American farmers trying to do the right thing by their land and their animals. Corporations like Smithfield, through the Save Our Bacon Act, want to rig the pork-production system by eliminating animal welfare considerations, allowing for the pigs to be overcrowded and packed in disgusting conditions.
This would price out American farmers who are doing right by their animals.
Yet again the needs of our rural communities are being sidelined for corporations that originate far away from our country counties and farms. It’s a tale as old as time… and it’s time to stand up for the American farmers holding our food supply, grown in safe and considerate conditions, on their shoulders.
The Senate Agriculture Committee will release the draft text of the much-awaited Farm Bill tomorrow. While there has been significant pressure to keep the Save Our Bacon Act out of the base bill, there is still a chance that corporate lobbyists could sneak it in.
Get active and defend our right to self-governance and safe food against corporate pressure.
Sign the UpRoot petition and click here to learn more: https://cause.link/uproot-bacon-0626.
A few months ago, three lawsuits were filed in Montgomery County against ORES for Mill Point Solar. The three lawsuits came from the county, the Town of Glen, and GlenFARMLand (a nonprofit). You can read more about that here.
On Thursday, June 18, 2026, four lawsuits were filed for Flat Creek Solar (the same complex I documented active eagle nesting sites at this past spring) in Montgomery County. They were as follows:
Montgomery County v. ORES
Town of Root v. ORES
Town of Canajoharie v. ORES
Residents for the Preservation of the Mohawk Valley (RPMV) v. ORES
The Montgomery County lawsuit states ORES failed to conduct required review of Montgomery County laws, ORES improperly denied the County full party status, ORES improperly found no substantive and significant issues requiring a hearing, and the permit should be vacated because the review process was legally defective.
The Towns of Root and Canajoharie argue ORES misapplied its own regulations regarding hearings.
RPMV argues that ORES misapplied its own regulations, improperly denied hearings, ignored expert testimony, failed to provide meaningful public participation, improperly handled local-law issues, and approved the permit through a fundamentally defective process.
The RPMV petition brings the case of the Amish community into the fold. This is the SAME Amish community that built out my entire farm for me.
Expert testimony from a nationally-regarded Anabaptist researcher was submitted into the ORES docket. The findings were entirely ignored by ORES.
If Flat Creek Solar is to be built, not only would it displace our national bird, but it would also fragment the Amish community in a way that is insurmountable for a group of people that live on foot or by horse-and-buggy. The community would pull out and move elsewhere.
Since so much of the Montgomery County economy is reliant on Amish businesses, this would undercut all local commerce and “bottom out” the market.
These four lawsuits are designed to point out the cumulative loss that Montgomery County is being unfairly forced to shoulder for impossible green energy goals that send the power far away from the towns playing host to these ecological detention centers.
I applaud those in the county that have put in the time, research, and money to bring forth these lawsuits. The county attorney, Meghan Manion, continues to stand up for her residents in a way no other county attorney has in New York State to date. I hope this inspires others to “grow a pair.”
It’s certainly an uphill legal battle to take on the ORES machine. The deck is stacked. But, in this case, perhaps the quantity of lawsuits being hurled at this shadow agency can chip away at its foundation, piece by piece.
More to come.
FURTHER READING
We want our home rule back: I filed a new lawsuit with the Town of Glen against New York State
On Friday, June 12th, 2026, I, in my capacity as the president of the American Land Rescue Fund with the Town of Glen, New York, filed a lawsuit against the Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) over the legality of the RAPID Act implementing regulations.
I'm suing New York State and ORES to protect the environment
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…
After three lawsuits were filed against ORES last week, executive director steps down
It certainly wasn’t a headline many of us were expecting to see on April 28, 2026. By mid-morning, the New York Department of Public Service (DPS), which houses the Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES), published a press released that stated the current executive director of ORES, Zeryai Hagos, had officially stepped down. The deputy executive direc…
The Amish are suing in religious rights grounds? I hope so. Need to read it in its entirety.
Why aren’t you suing Cornell? I’m disappointed to hear they aren’t making science-based decisions but religious (green energy religion) ones.
Well done Alex!