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A bill that exemplifies the lack of water for farming in California just passed the state Legislature. It makes it easier for farmers to convert their fields to solar panels.
Decades ago, state lawmakers were concerned about too many farms being turned into new subdivisions. So in 1965, the state started giving tax breaks to growers who agreed to keep their land in farming. But now farmers who want to switch to solar are finding the strict rules are like expensive locks on their property, with high fees to get out of the agreements.
The bill adopted Monday night targets areas where growers are now limited in how much groundwater they can pump and are being forced to leave some of their land dry and unplanted.
These landowners, largely in the Central Valley and the Central Coast, would no longer have to pay fees for the conversions.
The legislation, Assembly Bill 1156, “gives farmers and local communities in our most water-constrained regions another option for land that can no longer be productively farmed: use it to generate clean energy,” its author, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), said.
Climate & Environment
Solar is exploding in the Central Valley as drought-stressed farmers look to alternatives.
The bill, which the Senate approved in a 21-14 vote at the end of the legislative session, now awaits Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature.
California has set a goal of reaching 100% clean electricity by 2045, and building more solar projects on farmland would help.
Converting fields to solar arrays has become an attractive option for farmers who are grappling with restrictions limiting the groundwater they can pump from wells.
California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act was adopted in 2014 to address chronic overpumping that has led to falling aquifer levels and caused dry wells and sinking ground. The water limits get stricter each year until 2040 in many areas, and farmers face fines if they exceed them.
Researchers at the Public Policy Institute of California estimate that as much as 900,000 acres of farmland in the San Joaquin Valley may need to be left dry by 2040, largely because of the pumping limits. At the same time, global warming is worsening droughts throughout the West, putting even more strain on scarce water.
Climate & Environment
According to a new report, California groundwater regulations threaten to put many small farms out of business.
“As climate change forces difficult transitions across California’s agricultural communities, we should be looking for practical ways to help them adapt while moving us closer to our clean energy goals,” Wicks said.
The California Farm Bureau and other agricultural groups oppose the bill. In a letter before the Senate vote, they said that the latest version discards a carefully designed plan that would have included more protections for agricultural land and instead takes a blanket approach “that can convert the state’s best farmland to industrial use.”
Assemblymember Steve Bennett (D-Ventura), who voted for the bill, said it promotes solar energy while enabling farm owners with inadequate water to find another use for their land.
“I’m not overly concerned that there’s going to be this massive transformation of agriculture,” he said. “But some transformation is appropriate given the water shortage that we have and the clean energy issues that we have.”
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Ian James is a reporter who focuses on water and climate change in California and the West. Before joining the Los Angeles Times in 2021, he was an environment reporter at the Arizona Republic and the Desert Sun. He previously worked for the Associated Press as a correspondent in the Caribbean and as bureau chief in Venezuela. Follow him on Bluesky @ianjames.bsky.social and on X @ByIanJames.
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