RILEY SECURES COMMITMENT FROM AG SECRETARY TO HELP PROTECT UPSTATE FARMLAND THREATENED BY SOLAR DEVELOPMENT

At a House Agriculture Committee hearing, Riley and Secretary Rollins agreed to work together to oppose the Shepherd's Run project in Copake, keep farmland in the hands of Upstate farmers.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - At a hearing of the House Committee on Agriculture yesterday, Rep. Josh Riley (NY-19) and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins found bipartisan common ground on protecting Upstate New York farmland. The two agreed to work together at the federal level to defend the town of Copake, NY, where Albany bureaucrats have greenlit a proposed large-scale solar project against local opposition.

"The whole community pulled together-residents, farmers, small business owners, community leaders, Democrats, Republicans-everyone is trying to stop this thing," said Riley. "But a bunch of unelected bureaucrats in Albany are letting the project plow ahead. They're overruling our neighbors and handing beautiful Upstate farmland to an out-of-state corporate developer so they can pave it over and install Chinese solar panels."

Proposed by Chicago-based Hecate Energy, the Shepherd's Run project would convert roughly 215 acres of productive farmland in Copake into a 42-megawatt industrial solar facility. New York's Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) issued draft permit conditions in November 2025, allowing the project to move ahead despite 17 local zoning violations and overwhelming opposition from the Town of Copake, the Columbia County Board of Supervisors, and local residents.

At the hearing, Riley pressed Secretary Rollins to work together at the federal level to protect farmland and towns like Copake. "I'm not sure that there's a more righteous battle than the battle to save this farmland," Rollins said. "I would welcome that."

Riley's advocacy is part of his broader work to protect Upstate agriculture. His legislation to stop foreign adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party from buying up American farmland, and more than a dozen measures to support Upstate agriculture and rural communities, were included in the bipartisan Farm Bill, which passed the House in May.

You can watch Rep. Riley's remarks HERE, and see a transcript below:

REP. RILEY: I want to tell you about Copake. This is a beautiful rural town in Columbia County, a really tight-knit community of a few thousand people. They actually have this great car show that I like to take the kids to at Waubeeka Family Campground every summer. But today, Copake is being targeted by a billion-dollar out-of-state corporate developer called Hecate Energy that wants to cover our land with their solar panels. And it's not just any solar panels - these are solar panels made by a Chinese company with ties to slave labor.

These developers should be using American supply chains, not Chinese supply chains. And if they're building anywhere, build on parking lots and brownfields or the rooftops of cities, not in beautiful farmland in Upstate New York. But they're targeting places like Copake because it's a small town and they think they can steamroll us to make a buck for themselves.

Copake is small, but they fight. The entire community - residents, farmers, small business owners, Democrats, Republicans, independents - everyone got together to fight back against this thing, and passed 17 zoning laws to stop this project from coming in. But there's this group called ORES. It's a bunch of unelected bureaucrats in Albany, and they are overriding the residents of Copake and letting Hecate plow ahead. They're literally overruling our neighbors and handing this beautiful Upstate New York farmland to corporate developers using Chinese supply chains.

If they succeed, this is going to be such a tragedy - not just for towns like Copake that deserve better. In 2024 and 2025 alone, we lost 500 farms and 100,000 acres of farmland in Upstate New York. And if we don't change course, we're going to lose it all.

One of the reasons I supported the Farm Bill is because it included my legislation to stop China from buying American farmland. This is basically the same thing we're dealing with here.

I saw your tweet last week raising the alarm about this, including in Upstate New York. As you know, I'm always looking for ways to find common ground and shared values, and I think this might be one of them. So my question, with the time remaining, is: what can you and I do together at the federal level to protect our farmland and save towns like Copake?

SECRETARY ROLLINS: I'm not sure there's a more righteous battle than the battle to save this farmland.

REP. RILEY: I look at it as like we have to take action federally to return control to local people. The power should be with the people in Copake, not a bunch of unelected bureaucrats. And if you and I need to work together federally to return that power to them, let's do that.

SECRETARY ROLLINS: I would welcome that. We're already on it, so let's loop you into that work.

REP. RILEY: Thanks, Secretary. Appreciate it.

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