“Personally, Goldstein, a 46-year-old Republican, is for solar energy.
“I think it’s a wonderful thing,” Goldstein told me this week.
“I’m changing my mind, actually, because so many people are against it,” he said. “I have to represent the will of the people.”
In the town of Canajoharie, as in neighboring Mohawk Valley communities, solar is the kind of divisive issue that pits one neighbor who wants to rent land to a solar developer against another.
It’s time for all of us, but especially state politicians and officials in Albany, to recognize this conflict playing out in rural communities. The fact is, residents in such communities across the state are bearing the brunt of solar-energy development.
If leaders and solar farm firms are hoping to have true partners rather than outspoken opponents in the green-energy transition, they must be serious about listening to rural residents and not adamant about imposing their will.
Let me say up front that I’m supportive of green-energy development and understand how our efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change are already tardy. “
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Waite, Andrew. Schenectady Daily Gazette 16 August 2023.