A10
Wallowa County Chieftain
NORTHWEST
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Temporary rules restrict Oregon solar development
By MATEUSZ
PERKOWSKI
EO Media Group
Oregon’s land use reg-
ulators have temporarily
expanded restrictions on
solar arrays on high-value
farmland over the objections
of advocates who claim
they’ll impede development.
Solar facilities larger
than 12 acres on high-value
farmland have required con-
ditional use permits in Ore-
gon, but ambiguities in the
regulatory language raised
concerns among farm and
conservation groups.
For example, one proj-
ect was approved without a
permit last year because the
county government deter-
mined it didn’t “preclude”
agriculture use, since bees
could still forage beneath
the solar panels.
In response to these con-
cerns, the Land Conserva-
tion and Development Com-
mission issued temporary
rules clarifying that solar
projects cannot “use, occupy
or cover” more than 12
acres, regardless of whether
they “preclude” farm uses.
During a Jan. 24 meeting
in Salem, Ore., the commis-
sion voted to approve addi-
tional provisions prohibit-
ing most solar development
on top-quality soils: those
defined as Class I, Class II,
prime and unique.
However, the revised
rules will allow solar facili-
ties of up to 20 acres on such
soils if the project includes
a “farm use element” for the
project’s duration, as deter-
mined by county land use
rules. The special rules for
“dual use” facilities are set
Oregon State University/Capital Press
Sheep graze underneath a solar array at Oregon State University in Corvallis, where researchers discovered grass growing
more lush later in the season than elsewhere in the pasture. Such dual use projects are subject to special provisions under new
Oregon rules for solar developments.
to expire in 2022.
Due to a request to sub-
mit additional information,
the commission will also
revisit the solar rules again
at its meeting on March
21-22 with the goal of enact-
ing permanent regulations.
A representative of
Renewable Northwest, a
nonprofit that supports solar
energy, hopes the additional
information will be compel-
ling enough for the commis-
sion to decide changes need
to be made to the rules.
“From the perspective
of solar interests, the rule is
extremely prohibitive and
has the potential to cripple
the state’s community solar
program before it really gets
going,” said Rikki Seguin,
the group’s policy director.
Under Oregon’s commu-
nity solar program, residents
could subscribe to a shared
solar facility within their
utility’s service district, but
the recently adopted rules
could greatly restrict where
projects could be built in the
Willamette Valley, Seguin
said.
Solar facilities can help
Oregon farmers earn extra
income to keep their land in
the family and the property
can ultimately be returned to
agricultural use, she said.
“There’s a fixed life to
solar facilities,” Seguin said,
adding that preserving Ore-
gon farmland should be bal-
anced with developing the
state’s clean energy econ-
omy. “What we see missing
from these rules is any con-
sideration of balance.”
The farmland preserva-
tion group 1,000 Friends of
Oregon supports the tem-
porary rules in light of the
“challenging process” and
“strong interests on all sides
of the issue,” said Meriel
Darzen, rural lands attorney
for the nonprofit.
“In the end, we feel the
department did the best it
could with the very difficult
position it was in,” she said.
The regulation takes
the “best of the best soils”
off the table while leaving
enough land open so solar
development can occur in
the appropriate areas, she
said.
The rules are likely just
the beginning of the con-
versation and 1,000 Friends
of Oregon would like to see
Oregon continue to revisit
the issue and develop a
statewide vision for renew-
able energy and land use,
Darzen said.
Mary Anne Cooper, pub-
lic policy counsel for Ore-
gon Farm Bureau, said the
rules were a “step in the right
direction” and hopes they
will be revisited as more
data becomes available
about solar development in
the Willamette Valley and
elsewhere in Oregon.
The Farm Bureau would
like to see the state gov-
ernment recognize other
aspects of agricultural pro-
ductivity other than soil
quality, such as the avail-
ability of irrigation, drain-
age systems or high-quality
rangeland forage, she said.
Data collected by Ore-
gon’s Department of Land
Conservation and Develop-
ment — which is overseen
by the commission — indi-
cates 80 projects are cur-
rently proposed on nearly
1,000 acres of high-value
farmland in the Willamette
Valley.
Although solar advocates
argued that proposed solar
projects represent less than
one-tenth of 1 percent of the
nearly 1.46 million acres of
high-value farmland in the
Willamette Valley, DLCD
recommended enacting the
stricter regulations because
the farmland impacts have
been “disproportionate” in
some areas.
The proposed conver-
sion of nearly 1,000 acres
of high-value farmland in
the region “in a relatively
short period of time” indi-
cated that the existing rules
for solar development were
“too permissive” in the con-
text of preserving farmland,
the agency said.
Starnes continues crusade for campaign finance reform
By Paris Achen
Oregon Capital Bureau
Patrick Starnes, former
candidate for governor, earns
a living now as a carpenter
renovating an 1878 house in
Brownsville.
In his spare time, he is
working to remodel Oregon’s
campaign finance laws to cut
the influence of major donors.
Limiting campaign money
was a primary plank for
Starnes as he campaigned
for governor last year as the
candidate of the Independent
Party of Oregon. He took no
more than $100 from any sin-
gle donor though Oregon law
would have allowed him to
take checks of any size.
Shortly before the elec-
tion, he dropped out in a deal
with Democratic Gov. Kate
Brown, getting from her
promise to champion cam-
paign finance limits in the
2019 Legislature.
He means to hold her to
that promise and is continu-
ing his one-man campaign
for reform.
He calls on the governor’s
office regularly to check on
campaign finance proposals.
He’s been assigned a point
person in the Governor’s
Office, executive assistant
Jack Polales, to meet with
weekly.
“The commitment is
important to see it through
rather than getting the prom-
ises from everyone,” Starnes
said.
He also shows up at leg-
islators’ offices, sometimes
unannounced, with a bright
smile on his face and a ready
speech on why there should
be controls on how much
donors can spend on political
campaigns.
On
Wednesday,
for
instance, he met individually
with Sens. Ginny Burdick,
Fred Girod, Tim Knopp and
Floyd Prozanski.
“Since I am new to the
Capitol, it is more introduc-
tory,” Starnes said Friday. “If
you haven’t heard about me,
this is who I am, and this is
what I campaigned on. I want
to hear from them mostly
Portland Tribune/Jaime Valdez
Starnes
what their questions are and
what their solutions are.”
Some legislators have
already agreed to support a
constitutional
amendment
needed to make limits legal.
“Some lawmakers aren’t
interested in it and don’t think
it’s a big issue,” Starnes said.
His dream is to limit cam-
paign contributions to $1,000
for individuals and political
action committees each elec-
tion cycle.
In 1997, the Oregon
Supreme Court ruled that
such limits violated Orego-
nians’ constitutional right to
free speech, but voters could
authorize the caps by approv-
ing an amendment.
Legislators in each cham-
ber have proposed separate
referrals to voters revising
different parts of the Consti-
tution. The legislation would
let voters decide whether to
allow caps but proposes no
specific limit.
Currently, donors can give
as much as they want.
For instance, former Nike
CEO Phil Knight contributed
$2.5 million to the campaign
of state Rep. Knute Bue-
hler, the Republican nominee
challenging Brown. Knight
contributed another $1 mil-
lion to the Republican Gover-
nors Association, which itself
gave $2 million to Buehler’s
campaign.
Those
contributions
helped make 2018 the most
expensive governor’s race in
Oregon’s history.
While Starnes is pressing
for a $1,000 limit, the gov-
ernor prefers matching the
federal limits of $2,600 per
individual and $5,000 per
political action committee.
Starnes admitted his num-
ber probably won’t appeal to
most lawmakers.
“I don’t think it’s viable,
but one still has to haggle,”
Starnes said.
When Brown testified at
the first meeting of the new
Senate Committee on Cam-
paign Finance Wednesday,
Starnes watched from the
audience with his signature
smile.
She spoke to kick off the
committee’s work on cam-
paign finance legislation.
When
the
governor
entered the meeting, Starnes
intercepted her to shake her
hand and did the same thing
when she left the meeting.
She declared her support
for a constitutional amend-
ment and requiring “dark
money” groups to disclose
the names of their donors.
Such groups include politi-
cal nonprofits that can legally
receive unlimited contri-
butions from corporations,
unions and individuals and
spend it without identifying
donors.
“Political interests should
be able to speak out publicly
but not to be able to disguise
their voices and financial
interests in the outcome they
seek to influence,” Brown
said.
In late 2018, Starnes’s
mission to reform campaign
finance found a nexus with
Jeff Golden. Golden, a fresh-
man senator from Ashland,
chairs the campaign finance
committee.
During his campaign, he
vowed not to accept contri-
butions from political action
committees to show he
wouldn’t be influenced by
special interests, according to
the Medford Mail Tribune.
THANK YOU
to all who assisted
with and participated in the
2019 Wallowa County
Winter Aviation Banquet
Special thanks to the businesses and
individuals who through fi nancial means
continue to support Wallowa County
Pilots Association
• The Minam Lodge • Idaho Aviation Foundation •
• The Bookloft • Enterprise Electric •
• Backcountry Connection •