Common Ground

Louisiana has always measured a great deal by its land: who tends it, who profits from it, and who is left to answer for it when something goes wrong. Solar development is no exception, and it should not expect to be treated as one.

This summer the Legislature passed Senate Bill 185, directing the Department of Natural Resources to write rules governing where solar facilities may be sited and how they must be decommissioned once their useful life ends. Some in our industry regarded this as an imposition. We do not. A landowner who leases acreage for a solar array for twenty-five years is entitled to know, in writing, who removes the panels in year twenty-six and who pays for it. A neighboring parish is entitled to a say in how that array sits against its roads, its drainage, and its viewshed. These are not unreasonable questions. They are the ordinary business of an industry that intends to keep the trust of the people who live on the land it uses.

That is why the Gulf States Renewable Energy Industry Association is now drafting model siting rules for Louisiana's municipalities and parishes — not because a statute compels us to, but because an industry that wants a durable welcome in a place had better arrive prepared to earn it. Predictable rules, applied evenly and set out in advance, do more to attract responsible developers than any incentive the state could offer. They also do more to protect landowners than a patchwork of ad hoc conditions negotiated parish by parish, often without the benefit of counsel or precedent.

We said as much this summer when asked about the state's long-term solar trajectory: the solar industry is looking to put down significant long-term roots in Louisiana, and in order to do that, it is essential we be good stewards of local land and thoughtful neighbors. In return, we hope local residents and policymakers join us with open minds and good intentions — an exchange examined at length in Silicon Ranch's recent feature on solar developers and Louisiana's farming communities.

That common ground exists, and it is found less often in incentive packages than in plain dealing: siting rules a parish council can read and understand, decommissioning bonds set before ground is broken, and a developer willing to sit in a room with the people whose land borders the project. We intend to keep building rules of that kind, because an industry that behaves like a good neighbor is the only kind of industry that gets asked to stay.

*Seersucker Strategies manages advocacy, siting strategy, and association affairs for the Gulf States Renewable Energy Industry Association across Louisiana's parishes and the Legislature.*