They're going to cut down 150 acres of MATURE forest to install Oxbow Solar in the Town of Fenner in Madison County, New York.
Oxbow Solar is a 140MW ORES facility that was permitted in 2025.
In order to install the panels, developers will need to remove 150 acres of forest. That's around 70,000 to 80,000 mature trees, cut down, removed, and topsoil stripped to install something we're told is going to "save the climate."
The NYISO data out of Madison County shows Oxbow Solar will generate between 5% and 16% of nameplate capacity (7-23 MW monthly), not 140 MW.
Let me state the obvious here: trees and forests are one of the most effective carbon sinks on planet earth. Through photosynthesis, trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store the carbon in trunks and branches, roots, leaves, and forest soils.
Mature northeastern hardwood forests store 100–200 metric tons of carbon per acre.
Cutting down mature forest releases that stored carbon into the atmosphere, removes the environment's natural air filters, and takes away one of the most effective methods for LOWERING local temperatures. Trees release water vapor through their leaves! This process acts like natural air conditioning, cooling the surrounding air.
This has never, ever been about saving the environment. This has never, ever been about "cooling the climate." And this has never, ever been about improving our Upstate NY grid.
Commercial solar fails at all three.
It's time for ORES to be dissolved before another inch of Upstate NY soil, forest, and grassland is mutilated by multinational renewable corporations.