“The single greatest threat”

DENTON – The Caroline County Commissioners again urged constituents, and especially farmers, to pay close attention to the potential risks posed by energy legislation proposed in Annapolis, and especially the possible sprawl of solar fields displacing agricultural land on the Eastern Shore.

Helping to bolster the Commissioners’ argument against one part of a 4-pronged state energy legislation package during their March 25 meeting was Jay Falstad, executive director of the Queen Anne's Conservation Association.

Speaking during the meeting’s first public comment segment, Falstad thanked the Commissioners for their Feb. 28 testimony against Senate Bill 931, crossfiled with House Bill 1036 during the 2025 Maryland General Assembly. The bill is known as the Renewable Energy Certainty Act (RECA).

“These two bills represent the single greatest threat to Maryland's Eastern Shore in the state's history,” Falstad said. “For the very first time in my memory, it's allowing private entities to act as a public utility and completely eliminating any local zoning control and taxing control as it relates to solar projects and battery storage units.”

Both solar sprawl and the potential danger of battery energy storage systems have been top-of-mind for the Commissioners for several years.

A moratorium on battery energy storage systems has been in place since 2017, and a cap of 2,000 acres for solar arrays was enacted in March 2024.

But state legislators have proposed a legislative package that, if passed, would change and, according to Eastern Shore elected leaders, damage the agricultural landscape and economy of the Eastern Shore for years to come, if not permanently.

Falstad “strongly encouraged” county commissioners and Eastern Shore delegates to “not sit this one out. The issue is simply too important.”

The Caroline commissioners have taken the lead in reaching out to farmers, warning them to be wary of solar company’s persuasive efforts to lease their farmland. Their communications are being duplicated in other counties, Falstad said.

Amendments to the legislation have been suggested by the Maryland Association of Counties, but although Falstad said he had seen previous iterations, his March 24 conversation with a MACo representative yielded a nebulous “things were still very fluid going back and forth.”

Commission President Travis Breeding asked about how each county’s Priority Preservation Areas (PPA) factor into the proposed legislation, which he said was defined, but not mentioned elsewhere in the draft bill.

Falstad explained that PPAs have been part of “discussions and negotiations,” and that he had heard a cap on solar projects of “as high as 5% and beyond that really.”

“It would mean close to 10,000 acres in Caroline County by itself,” he said. “It's way more than the two (thousand) we have now.”

“It’s potentially thousands upon thousands of acres of solar projects,” Falstad said. “And if that were to happen, it would completely transform and potentially ruin the Eastern Shore.”

“It's a food security, it's a national security issue because, in the attempt to remedy one problem, which is energy prices – which this falsely addresses anyway – we're going to create another problem, which is going to be food production, … and it's going to make us more reliant on other countries,” Breeding said. “We see what's happening around the world right now. I think it's important that we have food security here, and we're not generating any more farmland in the United States, so we do have an obligation to preserve what we have.”

Commission Vice President Larry Porter expressed concern about the state potentially mandating a percentage of land to be used for solar, and how that would pan out.

“If we run out of farmers who want to put their land into solar, what happens with that gap – that's where I'm really concerned,” Porter said. “And the fact that the Maryland Energy Administration testified and opposed the bill that would that would prohibit the state from taking land for solar through eminent domain is a very, very telling fact, so that tells me where we're headed.”

As to Porter’s concern about battery storage, Falstad said safety guidelines had still not been “fully fleshed out.”

“So, in effect, the legislature could be voting on something where they don't know of any unintended consequences that may come down the pike,” Falstad said.

Despite pushback from Del. Lorig Charkoudian (D-20-Montgomery) on Feb. 28, Porter said he wasn’t satisfied with her position.

“She was very adamant that (battery storage safety) is not a problem. I think it is,” Porter said. “We have a moratorium on battery storage in this county, and it's in effect, and it's going to remain in effect.”

“I think we're probably headed down the road for a fight here, but it's a fight that we're willing to have, because we're not sending our volunteer fire companies (and) first responders into a situation where we're putting them in danger even more than they always are. This is life and death,” Porter said.

Porter noted that although the state is “looking at about a $1.8 billion tax increase,” taxing solar companies isn’t part of the solution for the state’s problem.

In fact, Falstad said, “the greater irony” is the transmission charge on electric bills, something he said the Maryland General Assembly legislated last year.

That charge “is the part that has increased since Jan. 1,” Falstad said. “Contained within that distribution charge is money that goes directly to the solar companies as a subsidy, giving them a “disproportionate advantage” in obtaining farmland.

“So, it's a double-barreled problem in that one, we need to try and kill these bills, but two, we need to go back and somehow remedy that part so that these companies are not receiving these excessive subsidies that put farmers out of business,” he said.

“Well, the president of the Senate is an attorney and a mouthpiece for the solar industry,” Porter said.

Breeding added, “It'd be interesting to see how many legislators took money from solar companies.”

“That's a story for another day, but yeah, trust me, it's significant,” Falstad said.

“The scary thing is, we all knew this was coming, but we didn't know it was going to be this big of a fight, and we've been meeting with delegates way back from last year,” Commissioner Frank Bartz said, adding that “People just need to be educated” about the consequences of passing the legislation.

Breeding said, “There's a lot of misinformation and propaganda being thrown around in an attempt to quiet the opposition to this bill and get it pushed through. … The gloves are off, and they're fighting hard to get as much of this through this year. … I think this is just going to be a continued battle every session.”

Falstad said, “I really urge your (constituents) to follow these two bills, House Bill 1036, and Senate Bill 931, and reach out to your delegates and senator today, and let them know that this is simply too much and we sure can't absorb what is being literally forced down our throats.”