There is nothing noble about state officials stripping rural counties of their land use authority in the name of green climate policy and placing a heavy boot on the farming communities’ neck. In Maryland, the script is being written by urban Democrats who have never held a seed in their hand or watched a storm roll across a field with the worry of a yield hanging in the balance. Their latest affront is a legislative land grab cloaked in green virtue: the pre-emption of local zoning laws to ram through utility-scale solar farms, directed not by elected county governments, but by the unelected and unaccountable Maryland Public Service Commission.
This, dear reader, is not policy – it is plunder.
In the song “Where Corn Don’t Grow,” Waylon Jennings warned us about the mirage of easy progress, where the “weeds are high where corn don’t grow.” In Maryland, we are sowing weeds indeed.
Urban legislators, intoxicated by climate platitudes and federal subsidies, have decided that Maryland’s breadbasket—the Eastern Shore—must become their energy pantry. Our farmland, cultivated through generations of grit and stewardship, is now being commodified by climate czars and solar salesmen with hundreds of millions to spend, aided and abetted by none other than Senate President Bill Ferguson, who moonlights—as luck would have it—as legal counsel for a solar company.
Scandalous? Only if you still believe Annapolis is anything but a racket.
Let us not beat about the bush. This is a systematic undermining of local control by urban politicians who believe virtue-signaling from a rowhouse stoop in Baltimore entitles them to dictate land use on the Eastern Shore.
House Bill 1036 and Senate Bill 931 are nothing short of a war declaration against rural Maryland. Under these bills, the Public Service Commission—an entity whose members earn over $207,000 per year and answer only to the Governor at the end of their terms—has been legislatively given carte blanche to preempt county zoning, effectively deciding where solar arrays may sprout like so many metallic weeds.
The urban progressives claim they need 18,000 to 30,000 acres for solar. But they’ve seized the authority to control far more—5% of all Priority Preservation Area farmland, which in Caroline County alone equals 8,800 acres. Across the Shore? Tens of thousands of acres.
Meanwhile, a state bill to prohibit solar eminent domain was not only killed—it was opposed by the Maryland Energy Administration. The solar energy companies are offering seductively obscene high prices for leasing farmland – amounts that farmers will find hard to refuse and with no fear that local county governments can enforce their zoning laws or comprehensive plans.
Connect the dots. This is neither a compromise nor true freedom of choice. This is conquest.
What makes this all the more galling is that these solar fields are not even efficient. As I have stated in a prior article, “Maryland is not green; Maryland is irresponsible”. We’re racing to meet abstract arbitrary climate benchmarks, gutting food-producing land in the process, while refusing to require that solar installations first cover impervious surfaces, parking lots, rooftops, and brownfields—the very spaces urban Maryland controls in abundance. Why? Because it’s easier—and more profitable—to dump solar arrays in Dorchester County than in downtown Baltimore or Silver Spring.
The urban progressives lecture us rural Marylanders about climate justice while quietly dismantling the foundation of food security. One 216-acre solar project in Millington (a town in Kent County for those of you in the urban areas that have no idea about the real Eastern Shore) has already taken 2 million pounds of corn and over a million pounds of wheat and soybeans off the market. Multiply that by 25. Then by nine counties. This is not environmentalism – it is scorched-earth policy wrapped in silicon.
And who is at the center of it all? One such person is Senate President Bill Ferguson. But his fingerprints are all over more than just land policy.
Ferguson has made a habit of advancing legislation that creates a crisis and then proposing government-funded solutions that deepen it. His support for a law allowing utility companies to lock in multi-year rate plans has helped drive a wave of energy price hikes now hitting working families across the state. Households already struggling under inflation are now facing punishing power bills—with little relief in sight.
Instead of reversing course, Ferguson is championing the use of taxpayer funds to send out “rebate checks” to help cover these rising utility costs. But these are the very costs his policy helped create. And the money for those checks? It’s coming straight from a state’s taxpayer funded budget that’s already hemorrhaging money.
Maryland is facing a staggering $3.3 billion budget shortfall. Federal aid that was once promised—such as the $418 million intended for education—has been yanked back, leaving school systems in disarray. Temporary pandemic funding has dried up, and the positions it once paid for—teachers, mental health professionals, construction workers—are vanishing. The state is now scrambling to paper over holes it helped permanently punch into the fiscal wall.
This isn’t crisis management. It’s a cycle of dysfunction dressed up as public service.
And Ferguson isn’t alone. Delegate Brian Crosby played a role in enabling these utility rate hikes, while Delegate CT Wilson has routinely backed legislation that weakens transparency and circumvents local accountability. They are not governing—they are insulating themselves from the consequences of their own votes, all while feeding the narrative that they are “fixing” what they have broken.
Caroline County Commissioner Larry Porter said it plainly in a recent social media post: “If only 2% of farmland is needed, why take 5%?” Why would Annapolis progressives gut our preservation programs and preempt local zoning ordinances for solar developers? Why override rural voices? The answer: Because they can… and because they believe us “hayseeds” on the Shore will not notice.
But we do notice. We are from the Eastern Shore, but we are not stupid. We know more than we say, think more than we speak, and notice more than the urban progressives realize. We see how the very people engineering the budget crisis are now asking for applause because they offer momentary relief. We see how Annapolis insiders treat the Eastern Shore not as a region of equal citizens, but as an extraction zone for urban fantasies.
Jay Falstad, the Executive Director of the Queen Anne’s Conservation Association, in a recent social media post, put it best: “Solar panels are not agriculture, and they do not belong on agricultural land.” This is not rural resistance. This is common sense.
And where is Governor Wes Moore in all this? Silent – as usual – above the fray and unwilling to offend the powerful. But the people of Maryland are paying the high price—for their power bills, their classrooms, and their property.
Let’s be very clear: the budget crisis is not just an abstract number. It’s affecting our schools, our energy bills, and our state’s fiscal credibility. The same insiders who caused the crisis now want to be seen as saviors. And unless Maryland voters demand a reckoning, this cycle of ruin will continue.
Speaking of fiscal credibility, I wonder if the Wall Street bond rating agencies know about the State’s unfunded liability of the many brewing Maryland detention abuse cases. This looming liability will be measured in billions of dollars and is something I bet was not disclosed to Wall Street. But do not pay attention to this my Eastern Shore readers, for the progressive urbanites are telling us, “All is well and there is nothing to see here”. I bet you that due to this progressive government’s malpractice, Maryland’s bond rating will be downgraded, and within 12 months your taxes will be further upgraded.
Just like the “green agenda” energy crisis, this is another expensive problem created by the progressive Democrat supermajority and the silent sidelined Governor. Who doubts me?
Because “where corn don’t grow”, weeds take root. Weeds like cronyism, cynicism, and centralized power.
And if Maryland keeps letting urban bureaucrats decide what grows on its farmland—both literally and politically—then the next thing to die will not be crops. It’ll be the Eastern Shore’s local freedoms.
Clayton A. Mitchell, Sr. is a life-long Eastern Shoreman, an attorney, and former Chairman of the Maryland Department of Labor’s Board of Appeals. He is co-host of the Gonzales/Mitchell Show podcast that discusses politics, business, and cultural issues.
Clem Kaikis says
Excellent Clay!
Joan Murray says
I am willing to bet Mr. Mitchell that my Democratic grandfather planted more seeds in his lifetime than Mr. Mitchell has ever sown in his.
I would be happy to debate having solar on farmlands, but to state that in Maryland” the script is being written by urban Democrats who have never held a seed in their hand or watched a storm roll across a field,”
is an incredible generalization.
What does he think about the agricultural script being written by a President who has never farmed, never had to go hungry a day in his life, nor will ever have to worry if there is enough food to put on the table?
I am not sure Brooke Rollins, Trump’s Secretary of Agriculture, has actually spent much time sowing seeds on a farm.
I can also bet that Republican members of Congress like Shelley Moore Capito, who are clamoring to go back to the days of dirty coal instead of supporting renewable energy sources, were not farmers planting seeds and watching for tornadoes in their early lives.
Mr. Mitchell neglects to mention that farmers get thirty billion in farm subsidies from the government, some if their crop fails, or if they grow on marginal land, thus the crop insurance. And too bad about the small farmers who grew one million metric tons of corn and soybeans for the USAID program which Musk and Trump just froze. (A program, by the way, that was less than 1% of the federal budget.)
Nor does Mr. Mitchell mention how much the water pollution is caused by agricultural runoff from agriculture, with the spread of manure, herbicides and pesticides. I am supporting programs that protect the water of the Chesapeake Bay so that everyone can enjoy water activities on unpolluted rivers; and also so that those living near the Bay and rivers do not have to worry about chemical runoff affecting their health, or the health of future generations.
Michael Davis says
Excellent response, Ms. Murray. Mr. Mitchell projects the death of freedom on the Eastern Shore due to environmentalism. I hope Mr. Mitchell tells us when that is going to happen so we can all move to Russia while we still have a chance.
Chip Heartfield says
Hi Ms. Murray, you call out what you claim is a generalization by Mr. Mitchell about Democrat politicians, then go on to characterize Brooke Rollins without knowing anything about her. Even a simple 30-second search would have produced this: [Wikipedia] “Rollins was raised on a farm in Glen Rose, Texas. She graduated Texas A&M University with a B.S. in agricultural development in 1994. While at Texas A&M, Rollins was the first woman to be elected student body president. She also served as the speaker pro tempore of the Student Senate, the chair of the Texas A&M Judicial Court, as a Fish Camp counselor, and was Cotton Bowl Classic Queen. In 2007, Rollins became the first female speaker at the College Station Aggie Muster, which honors deceased Texas A&M former students. Rollins earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Texas School of Law, graduating with honors.” Likewise your statement about farm subsidies; according to the USDA, total farm subsidies have only hit $30 billion once – during the covid year of 2020. In 2022 they were about $15.6 billion (versus farm sales of $552 billion) and were down to $9.3 billion by 2024. Note, in response to various disasters including the wildfires and massive flooding, Congress passed by wide bi-partisan margins, and President Biden signed, a bill to increase that amount to $42.4 billion for 2025, after which it is expected to return to its previous much lower levels. I hope you are not opposed to this one-time high-level given what farmers have suffered through, and by the way, these are national figures so not applicable to this discussion of the particular plight of Maryland farmers and the state seizing control over local land use decision-making. The misstatements about Ms. Rollins and farm subsidy levels necessarily call into question other generalizations and characterizations. And getting to the nub of it, do you really support the state government simply usurping long-held local powers in order to impose their will and destroy more of our vanishing green space? (Side note: these are the same politicians who are forcing counties to take on state spending obligations so they can claim they balanced the budget; school systems and others in need will take these imposed hits.) Mr. Mitchell quotes a county leader and a conservationist who are opposed, and if you check, you will see that environmental groups such as the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation are also opposed to the taking of prime farmland for on-again, off-again solar panels (or any other non-farming development). Thank you for reading.
David Callahan says
Agriculture is by far the most heavily subsidized industry in the US – crop insurance is just one piece of the pie. The biggest is tax breaks: there’s a reason agricultural land uses are barely taxed and many ag-related purchases are completely exempt from sales tax. Not to mention that agriculture is exempt from a host of state and federal regulations, including the Clean Water Act! If it weren’t for ag runoff we could all swim in the Miles River.
Finally, I’m surprised everyone here seems to support local government usurping private property rights. All of these landowners leasing their property to solar developers are doing so because it’s their personal right. If you think that a group of county commissioners should step in and tell them they can’t, well, that sounds awfully liberal to me.
Eric Ploeg says
This isn’t national partisan issue, Trump and Musk have NOTHING to do with this. This is a Maryland issue where urban bureaucrats have voted themselves the power of eminent domain in our communities. It’s Moore and his comrades asserting their power over our localities under the clean energy guise.
They must already have an objective in mind, knowing there will be opposition from the local communities. Otherwise, why the need for this new legislation?
There’s still some open space between Mill Cove and Perry Cabin so it’s okay to build a massive solar farm there on the banks of the Miles River? Or is Ms. Murray supporting legislation removing local control over community zoning as long as it’s “not in my neighborhood”? This is the issue.
Joan Murray says
Mr. Ploeg,
Yes I would very much consider building a solar farm on that property. I have been approached by several solar companies- and in doing so, the energy costs of many residents could be reduced. My organic farmland has run at a lost for three years now, and the farmer must be reimbursed by crop insurance- a subsidy paid for by the government. I am mindful of my neighbors, however, and they are the ones who at this time would prefer if I left it in farmland. But, yes Mr Ploeg, I would put a solar farm there today if my neighbors would approve as well.
Michele La Rocca says
The eastern shore should secede to Delaware.
Geoffrey Meyer says
Ms. Murray, Your “what about-ism” comments don’t really respond to Mr. Mitchell’s criticisms which are obviously valid.
Hal De Bona says
Totally agree
Democrats living on the Eastern Shore
Reed Fawell 3 says
Annapolis has no business making these:decisions. They should be made on the county level because this is where the impacts are felt.
Kent Robertson says
I agree with Mr Mitchell’s assessment that the encroachment of solar farms on agricultural land is an affront to people who choose to live in the Eastern Shore precisely because of its bucolic nature. And all in the name of antheogenic “global warming”, about which there has been little open debate.
If you must build solar farms (which have many environmental and efficiency problems that have not been addressed), why not build them over parking lots, roads, and buildings?
Please leave our farmland alone.
Marlene says
Well said
Kent Robertson says
I agree with Mr Mitchell’s assessment that the encroachment of solar farms on agricultural land is an affront to people who choose to live in the Eastern Shore precisely because of its bucolic nature. And all in the name of anthrogenic “global warming”, about which there has been little open debate.
If you must build solar farms (which have many environmental and efficiency problems that have not been addressed), why not build them over parking lots, roads, and buildings?
Please leave our farmland alone.
Rick Megahan says
Unfortunately the wave of common sense made apparent in the November election will take awhile to inundate Maryland. Mr Mitchell points out some of the obvious errors being made in the name of green “science.”
Promotion of this part time energy source never addresses what is to become of solar panel material as it deteriorates and needs to be replaced.
The root of the climate industry folly can only be eradicated by educating the public more about the complete role of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. I won’t hold my breath that it be addressed in public schools, but in the mean time, a good place to start is CO2coalition.org. Our new EPA leadership will drive it home as well.
KEN J.BOWER says
Nothing new with Maryland Legislature and governor, It about shoving everything down our throats and trying to make the land giveaway later on to the poor in Baltimore City to come here and have the Democrats take over theceastern shore, We remember Moore said that the Eastern shore was an outhouse and now he want the land. Farmers here say this is the wrong path to take MOORE NEVER LISTENS!
If he tries to enforce such bill against the wishes of the Farming commenting he will pay the price at the polls.
Dave Callahan says
Hey Clayton –
I would be happy to debate why – in our increasingly energy dependent economy – solar is better than growing hay to ship overseas, but to state that “in Maryland the script is being written by urban Democrats who have never held a seed in their hand or watched a storm roll across a field,” is an insult. I recommend you get to know one, rather than believe talk radio pundits. I’m sure Democratic Delegate Natalie Ziegler could teach you a few things about her grain farm in Howard County.
I’m shocked, that as a conservative you’re supporting the right of government officials telling a property owner what they can and cannot do with their land. If a landowner wants to lease their land for solar development, that’s their choice and theirs alone. If you’d prefer a county commissioner telling you what’s best for you and your family, so be it.
I also chuckled when Mr. Mitchell threw stones from his glass house: sure, renewables are subsidized like any other energy resource, but farmers benefit from a host of state and federal subsidies, from lucrative crop insurance to property and sales tax exemptions. Guess what industry is exempt from the Clean Water Act, minimum wage laws, child labor laws, and a host of others? It’s not solar.
I’d love to swim in the Miles River every day. But thanks for ag runoff, I can’t.
I for one am glad that the only energy produced in Talbot County is from solar energy – I’d rather live by panels than a smokestack. If Mr. Mitchell has better ideas for keeping his lights on, he’s welcome to share them. Good luck getting a gas turbine built in your backyard.