One of every four acres in Minnesota is already owned by the County, State, or Federal Government yet investors and government agencies target prime agricultural land and residential areas to advance the costly program of solar energy. With this, the questions begging to be asked are:
- Why not utilize the enormous amount of existing government land for these projects?
- Why the targeting of productive agricultural land and inhabited residential areas?
The yet to be proven renewable energy experiment pits neighbor against neighbor as private property and Minnesota’s prime agricultural farmland disappears, all while wind and solar farms, towers, transmission lines, and stations appear. Why does the government need more land? Why this ever-widening land grab?
Behind the enormous taxpayer expense is the lucrative business of energy. This movement shreds individual liberties, private property ownership and, as a bonus, destroys communities along Minnesota’s scenic landscape. These are being replaced through the implementation of Environmental, Social, and corporate Governance (ESG). This is a business framework to create value for the stakeholders, with an end game resulting in monitoring the individual for their energy social credit score. As an extension of the United Nations, via the Green New Deal, this construct has landed in our backyard, courtesy of Governor Walz and his ONE MINNESOTA, a socialist program with a global agenda.
Key elements pitting neighbor against neighbor are found within Public Private Partnerships. Drawing revenues from taxpayers and/or users, where is the benefit for the neighbor citizen? These partnerships, between the government, Minnesota utilities (investors and stakeholders) and the private landowner, circumvent constitutional processes by eliminating your elected representation, aka your voice and your vote.
Is ownership of Xcel Energy important? Owning Xcel Energy, and as the second largest worldwide investment group, Vanguard Group is not a public utility agency. Though privately owned (investors), Xcel Energy enters Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) with the ability to commandeer private property through the power of eminent domain. Is this land grab being facilitated through a back door?
The Xcel Energy website expresses their support for implementing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which is a roadmap to world social governance. Codifying a global agenda in June 2019, to implement SDGs, the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the United Nations (UN) signed a Strategic Partnership Framework. Investment groups partnered with powerful stakeholders and investors, supporting this strategic framework, and have positioned themselves to take over the energy industry.
“You will own nothing and be happy” – Klaus Schwab, Founder and Chairman of WEF
While remaining on the hook for property taxes, most private property owners and farmers do not understand the gravity or overarching global objective when approached for leasing their property for “renewable” energy. As with other PPPs, and as they accept lease agreements, no doubt, some farmers and landowners willfully give away their property rights, others unknowingly give them away, while some are encouraged to donate their property to the socialist collective.
In perpetuity, various public private partnerships, and/or land trusts result in the loss of private property rights which extends to future landowners. Leased land, occupied with an energy project, drastically limits the ability to find a buyer. These arrangements acutely impact the value of private property, putting generational farmland in jeopardy and lifetime investments at great risk. When the landowner is unable to sell the investors swoop in, at a great discount, to the detriment of the landowner. Often not anticipated is the negative impact on the adjacent neighbor’s property values, as they can take a loss when a solar or windfarm pops up. This situation can be further exacerbated when an environmental or natural disaster occurs.
A deal was struck in Minnesota for firing up 4650 megawatts of power.
With five counties involved, from Marshall to Becker, needed is approximately 8 acres (about 6.5 football fields) of land for every one-megawatt of solar energy generated.
- For each 1-megawatt farm it takes 3500-5000 solar panels to cover the 8 acres of field for the possibility to capture 1-megawatt of solar.
- Including towers, windmills, and stations, a 1-megawatt farm equates to approximately 175 miles in powerlines.
But wait, it has gotten worse. During the Democrats trifecta of Minnesota’s 2023 unrestrained legislative session, the approval went from one to five megawatts.
- This represents an increase from 6.5 football fields to 32.5 football fields per solar farm and 175 miles to an unknown increase in powerline miles.
- A 4650MW escalation in development potentially represents a substantial increase in acreage pulled out of production which represents up to 37,200 acres.
- Down from 2020, 2021 Minnesota lost 100 farms. With the average size farm sitting at 377 acres, this unproven experimental project will cause an additional 100 Minnesota farms to disappear.
Exponentially expanding the loss of private property and farmland from eight acres to forty acres per 5-megawatt farm, this costly and unreliable experiment will accelerate the gutting and plundering of Minnesota’s prime agricultural farmland. Twenty-five percent of Minnesota’s 51.2 million acres is owned by the government. This is equivalent to about half of the size of Kentucky. Again, this begs the question why government land is not being utilized for this project.
There appears to be a long game in the confiscation of private land through leases. When private property becomes an integral part of the project, woven into the infrastructure, and should the owner not want to renew the agreement, their land can be claimed as necessary for ongoing operations thus be confiscated via eminent domain. This can happen when the public utility is privately owned, which Xcel Energy is. This loophole looks to be a winner for investors forcing property owners off their land and out in the cold. With the disclaimer nothing within this article is legal advice, this situation looks as if it can be avoided with appropriate legal representation prior to entering the partnership.
How many more farms and communities will be sacrificed to meet this lofty global agenda? With Minnesota being revealed as one of the very least productive states for solar capability in the nation (https://www.nrel.gov/gis/assets/images/solar-annual-ghi-2018-usa-scale-01.jpg ) one cannot help but wonder what is the true objective behind this global solar push in Minnesota.
Considering the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals #7 and #15, it becomes apparent this is not in the best interest of the landowner, Minnesotans or US citizens as these UN Sustainable Development Goals perpetuate ongoing land grabs with the elimination of personal private property rights and ownership.
“Goal 7 ambitions. Achieving energy and climate goals will require continued policy support and a massive mobilization of public and private capital for clean and renewable energy, especially in developing countries.”
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/energy/
“Goal 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss”.(including pollinators)
”The UN Secretary-General called on all sectors of society to mobilize for a decade of action on three levels: global action to secure greater leadership, more resources and smarter solutions for the Sustainable Development Goals; local action embedding the needed transitions in the policies, budgets, institutions and regulatory frameworks of governments, cities and local authorities; and people action, including by youth, civil society, the media, the private sector, unions, academia and other stakeholders, to generate an unstoppable movement pushing for the required transformations.”
Worldwide consideration- In what country has this green energy experiment been proven successful? Certainly not in Germany, nor throughout Europe, as they are experiencing repeated black outs.
Back to Minnesota…
In the long term is the tradeoff for this unproven experiment worth it:
- When landowners are expected to support unreliable “green” energy, while voluntarily relinquishing their property rights?
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With fewer farms and the inevitable pressure on supply and demand bringing even higher food prices, shortages, and the need for importing more products from other countries.
With other considerations:
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Why do these megawatt farms benefit the cities and not the local communities which are stuck with the eyesore of towers, power lines, solar and wind farms?
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What happens if the partnership goes bad or the experimental project fails, who is responsible for the cleanup?
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Consider the effect on Minnesota’s fauna with one example of how insects mistake solar panels for water, putting aquatic species, along with all those dependent on them in the food chain, at risk. In the land of 10,000 lakes, Solar panels could be a threat to aquatic insects, new research shows | Solar power | The Guardian
About 51% of Minnesota’s land mass is agricultural. With limited sun, limited seasons, snow cover, low temperatures, heavy vegetation, and limited hours to collect solar energy, why is this experiment being pushed in human settlement zones and on prime agricultural farmland? The Sonoran Desert is a prime source location for collecting energy, with vast areas of low vegetation, 360 sunny days per year, hot temperatures, and limited human settlement areas. The optimum temperature for solar panels collecting energy is 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Minnesota’s 52 degrees Fahrenheit yearly average temperature falls far below this ideal. Why the huge solar push in Minnesota? What is the true objective for not using government land?
Upfront and by way of the back door the implementation of the WEF and UN sustainability goals reveals the strategy of obtaining control of privately owned land, food production, and the carbon footprint of the individual. On both sides of the isle, to attain their lofty global agenda, just how much more private property do our Minnesota globalists seek? How much wider the path will they, in Minnesota’s Legislature, clear for the commandeering of all private land?
Unfortunately, when the 2,238 MW Becker Sherco coal plant shuts down, it will take over 11,000,000 (200 watt) solar panels to produce the same amount of energy. To cover Minnesota with solar panels would not meet the energy gap. Minnesota’s limited financial resources will drive a dependency towards government subsidies plus, for the end user, the already promised increase in energy costs. Via Public Private Partnerships, this Environmental Social corporate Governance (ESG) is being implemented by investors, international investor groups and lobbyists. These strategic UN and WEF mandates coerce the embrace of Minnesota’s expensive and inadequate solar power, while systematically chipping away at farmland, with the goal to result in the depleting of agricultural output, which is a backdoor to controlling our food supply.
During communications researching for this article Tom DeWeese, Founder of American Policy Center, shared “There is no science to back up these projects. They are not necessary – there is no environmental crisis to warrant this massive attack on liberty and property.”
Why is Minnesota being saddled with the financial ramifications of global goals vs what Minnesotans want and need? Is it because Minnesota Governors Dayton and Walz refused to cooperate with the US government? America pulled out of the UN Paris Climate Agreement, but both Governors chose to remain in lock step with the global UN Agenda on Sustainability.
Where citizens and communities can exercise their voice on this issue is through their Minnesota County Commissioner. Commissioners have the opportunity and authority to approve or disapprove such permits. Unfortunately, Stearns County gave up their authority, relinquishing the voice and vote of the people who elected them as their representation. When the county commissioners appointed Environmental Services, a 3rd party non-elected entity/department, they gave them the authority to initiate and oversee multiple aspects of one-megawatt farms. Environmental Services authority ranges from environmental impact, site location, permits, startups, etc. and facilitates the operation of the solar fields in Stearns County, with no oversight, and without the approval of the people. Whether in Stearns or any other county, it is imperative to stop the process prior to permits being granted for installation of the transmission towers.
Per Minnesota’s Stearns County Administrator, Michael Williams, in an email to Stearns County Commissioners– “Our Environmental Services Department, as you all know, handles applications for less than 1 MW solar fields administratively. The Board made the change some time ago which some might argue should not have been delegated to administration. Of course, it has nothing to do with any consulting company and we have not contracted out the process or the decision-making authority.”
Mr. Williams’ above statement confirms the Environment Services Department “handles” solar fields administratively, and that this responsibility was delegated/relinquished to administration-aka non-elected bureaucrats.
Minnesota Stearns County elected officials are not being consulted in consideration for any part of the process for these solar projects. This has left at least two Stearns County Commissioners frustrated when discovering solar fields suddenly appearing. The transfer of authority to the Environmental Services Department has yielded a lack of transparency and accountability. With no authority comes the reality Stearns County elected commissioners are not able to appropriately represent the people.
A recent event was sponsored by Xcel Energy near Kimball, Minnesota. As if the citizen voice mattered or carried any weight, it was little more than an orchestrated effort to placate the masses regarding the placement of Xcel transmission towers. When asked, one Xcel representative stated, though they were asking for public feedback, the project is going through. Per Xcel Energy website, “We’re an investor-owned energy company…” “…we also have the responsibility to our investors.” So much for citizen input.
There is one ray of hope. Currently 13 states have filed a lawsuit to fight this invasive land grab with, to date, a small level of success. For Minnesota farmers and private property owners, NOW is the time to go on the offensive and file your lawsuits. NOW is the time to protect your property rights and with an abundance of government owned property, NOW is the time to protect future generations from these private property land grabbers.
At the local level, in the name of solar and wind energy for net zero carbon, is a land grab for your private property for international goals. With government facilitating and participating through an unconstitutional process, to enable globalist control, this ever-expanding project is expensive for the public, yet financially lucrative for investors…and they are coming for your property next.
Co-authored by LJ Shalishah
