They Paved Paradise

“Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone. They paved paradise, put up a parking lot.” – Joni Mitchell

I‘ve never fancied myself as much of an environmentalist.  It’s not that I don’t believe in protecting sacred spaces; rather, I don’t find myself at home in the company of most environmentalists.  I don’t share much of the conclusions or solutions of your average environmentalist, who often espouses socialist ideas on autonomy, private property, and even mistakes the Creation for the Creator. That said, many environmentalists have the right idea when it comes to preserving sacred spaces. From the dirt we came, and to it we will return.

My father’s family farm in Northeast Pennsylvania is located on the Pennsylvania shale fields.  In the past decade or so, natural gas companies have moved in and established wells across much of the area.  They’re actually quite small and innocuous, and they do a good job of preserving the area’s natural beauty.  The greatest detriment they cause is often the damage to roads from heavy equipment during construction. Because nearby New York banned fracking for natural gas and pipeline transport, the properties on the Pennsylvania side are worth significantly more than those on the New York side.  Unfortunately, that also severely limits LNG transport in PA to trucks and rail, which makes the process more expensive and profitable only during the winter and other periods of high demand.

Outside of New York City, New York State is one of the more picturesque states in America.  It’s lined with mountains and hills, and it’s a very green state.  New York’s authoritarian politics leave a lot to be desired, but a real attempt to limit advertising displays and homogenize service facilities had largely left New York’s interstate highways with an emphasis on nature.  Since LNG is an important source of clean energy in Pennsylvania, New York has been left seeking other renewable energy avenues, such as wind and solar power.  Many pristine communities are now littered with thousands of acres of solar panels, which are counterintuitive to their emphasis on natural beauty.

Here in Bannock County, we’re once again debating industrial solar and battery farms.  This project, the Harmon Solar Project, proposed by Utah’s Balanced Rock Energy, seeks to implement a 2600-acre industrial solar and battery storage facility in the south Bannock County Marsh Valley region. The same project was first proposed and shot down in 2024, when concerned citizens in south county organized to prohibit the development of industrial energy in Bannock County, but re-emerged after County Commissioner John Crowder was replaced on the Commission.  The project’s proponents seek to push through the necessary zoning ordinance changes via conditional use permits to allow the development of industrial-scale energy projects, including wind, solar, and nuclear. The final date to receive Federal tax subsidies for this project requires that the project start by July 04, 2026.

Proponents of this solar project are mostly agricultural landowners who stand to gain financially by converting their farmland into industrial land. Arguments in favor of this project point to a need for increased energy production in the region, temporary job creation, and increased tax revenues to Bannock County. They argue for private property rights and deem oppositional voices Luddites who eschew technological development in favor of a stagnant community.

Opponents point to the loss of agricultural land and employment, environmental concerns, neighboring property values, the heat island effect, fire risk, destruction of natural riparian habitat, visual blight, and debates over decommissioning the infrastructure 25-30 years from now.  They argue that the energy produced is unreliable and most often exported elsewhere, increasing costs for the rest of the grid at the expense of locals. They argue that private property rights end where public subsidies and neighboring properties are involved.

I’m not a fan of this proposed solar project because I have seen similar projects across Northern Utah and New York State, and unfortunately, they’re ugly.  They take green space and turn it into uniform industrial wasteland.  Contrary to my opinion on this particular project, I am not opposed to solar power.  I think it makes more sense in marginal land than in marshland and wildlife corridors.  I actually built a solar-powered shop at my home to avoid trenching the property to run power lines, and though it has proven tricky and required far more panels and battery storage than it should have, it has served me well ten months out of the year.  The other two months require an extension cord due to insufficient daytime sunlight.

At the end of the day, the issue comes down to the overdevelopment of wild spaces in chasing temporary dollars. There comes a point of no return when, short of natural disaster and nature reclaiming its space, these places we are tasked with stewarding are lost forever. Having lived in Georgia, Utah, and now Idaho, I do my best to warn the locals that I am a time traveler. I am here from the past to warn locals of what is to come, and quite frankly, after Idaho falls to overdevelopment, there really isn’t anywhere left to go.

Idaho is in a unique position to embrace its nuclear heritage to address its energy needs, while preserving the wild that makes Idaho great. If there is any silver lining to the ordinance changes, the County Commission has requested public feedback on both this solar project and future micro-reactor nuclear developments. On Wednesday, July 08, there will be a meeting on nuclear projects in Arimo. I was unable to find a published date for the next discussion on solar developments, reach out to the Bannock County Commissioners for the next solar discussion. Just as in Europe, which is shifting its grid strategy from solar and wind to nuclear, Bannock County is poised to lead the nation in clean, renewable nuclear energy.