For more than two years, a New York renewable energy company has been working to build a large solar farm in rural western St. James Parish — is now poised for a final vote from parish officials after dialing back its earlier plans amid public opposition.
D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments has plans to sell 360 megawatts of solar power to Entergy Louisiana, which is trying to meet the renewable power demands of its industrial customers in the region.
In mid-2022, opposition to a bigger version of DESRI's plans helped trigger a parish-wide moratorium on utility-scale solar projects and the creation of a new ordinance.
Now, DESRI is back with a solar farm that is 40% smaller than the earlier plan, with land buffers larger than what the new parish rules require to cut down on visual and sound impacts. The solar panels would be designed to withstand winds of 139 mph and to "stow" themselves to minimize hail strikes, the company says.
It has also added a $4.67 million community benefits package for local governments and promised to forgo lucrative industrial property tax exemptions, which other solar farms in Louisiana have gotten and DESRI had previously pursued in St. James.
DESRI says the tax benefits alone would generate $154 million over the project's 35-year lifespan, including $69.5 million in the first nine years.
"This will fund local schools and public services for years to come, creating a lasting benefit for the community," said Hy Martin, DESRI's chief development officer.
The Parish Council is scheduled to vote on it Tuesday in Vacherie.
In late April, however, the parish Planning Commission recommended the farm's rejection in an 8-1 vote, and critics, including a councilman for the area, remain.
Opponents have raised concerns about the look and sound of acres of reflective panels, the potential impact of the loss of cane land from the region's job-intensive sugar industry, the few long-term jobs after construction ends, flying panels during major storms and the optics of the benefits package.
The dispute has echoed similar fights across the state and in rural parts of the nation as proposals for renewable power, boosted by federal incentives aimed at cutting carbon emissions to mitigate climate change, have spread.
The fight has also reversed a frequent dynamic in St. James, which has faced controversy over industrial plans for large agricultural tracts near minority communities along the Mississippi River.
Environmental and community groups have supported DESRI's plans as a virtually pollution-free alternative and have criticized both the moratorium and recent commission vote. However, some officials who have supported jobs-heavy industrial projects are hesitant to give up such a large site for so few permanent jobs and worry about the impact on the sugar industry.
Saying he is responding to his Vacherie constituents, Councilman Donald Nash has remained steadfast against the solar farm. Nash says he speaks for residents like Rachel and Perry Perque, who have lived on Innis Lane in Vacherie since 1984 and would be less than a half mile from the solar farm.
Shopping at Schexnayder's Supermarket in south Vacherie last week, the Perques said they've been following the solar farm debate. But DESRI's concessions — including a perimeter fence, bamboo screening, wide land buffers and the community benefits plan — aren't enough to change their minds.
"Tell them to go put it somewhere else," Rachel Perque said. "We don't want it."
'Shouldn't we be standing in line?'
Other opponents have seized on the community benefits agreement, which doesn't take effect unless the project is approved.
Robbie Poche, 41, of Paulina, who runs a small Facebook group about the DESRI proposal, said he isn't opposed to solar generally but objects to the agreement, saying it makes him feel as if something is amiss in the proposal.
"If their product is so good and it's so great for the environment and so good for the environment, why are they having to buy all these votes? Shouldn't we be standing in line and wanting it to come in?" Poche asked.
DESRI's Martin says the agreement was developed after two years of meetings with residents and officials to identify ways to make an impact in the community.
Among the deal's offerings are $250,000 to be spread among local schools, $1.5 million to the parish general fund, $770,000 for parish recreation and $1.5 million toward a multi-purpose complex in the Vacherie area. The deal also offers scholarships, job training and a one-month local hiring preference.
The multi-purpose complex, in particular, has directed criticism toward Councilwoman Vondra Etienne-Steib, in whose district it would be built.
But consultants and others who track such deals say the proposal is standard and note the benefits would be broadly shared.
Such agreements are not "bribery," said Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School.
"They do not profit individuals, but communities as a whole," Burger said. "They have long been used by developers of all kinds of industrial facilities, including fossil fuel power plants."
Max Jabrixio, a Minnesota consultant who has put together similar deals, said the value of the agreement is near the top end for a project the size of DESRI's.
It appears to include things that are common in successful agreements, including stakeholder input, hiring and local workforce considerations, mitigation of project impacts and "targeted investment in community-identified priorities", Jabrixio said.
Councilwoman Etienne-Steib, a school administrator, said she has gotten hostile messages for her support of the project — husband recently accompanied her to a council meeting for protection. She defended the agreement as appropriate to counter the impact of the solar farm and to help her rural community.
"I'm not getting a dime for any of this. My job is to help the community grow," she said.
Broad support?
Since DESRI's last plan was put on hold, company officials have been involved in creating the solar rules and have conducted community meetings.
Economic groups, including the chambers of commerce for the river region and the Baton Rouge area, have gotten behind the proposal, as has a former longtime teacher and principal at nearby St. James High School, Shane Kliebert.
DESRI officials contend that support underlines an important feature of the debate, that opponents are a vocal minority who don't reflect broader views of the parish.
They point to a poll of 200 residents conducted nearly two years ago, in August 2022, by JMC Analytics that found almost 55% had a favorable to very favorable view of the solar industry.
More than 62% said they were "more likely" to "much more likely" to view a solar farm proposal favorably if "significant contributions" to community initiatives were offered.
Significant time has passed since then, however. The poll questions also had a sizeable margin of error of 6.9%. That means, in the worst case, the 55% favorable and very favorable view could be as little as 48.1% combined.
A more recent statewide Louisiana Survey poll by LSU researchers found strong support for solar and wind farms generally but an evenly divided public when asked what should be prioritized: solar, wind and hydrogen, or oil and gas.
Vacherie business people Jaime and Troy Chenier reflected some of those mixed views.
They've run Chenier's Seafood & Market along La. 20 in Vacherie for 13 years. DESRI's plan would put panels about 800 feet behind the business.
Troy Chenier said the solar project "really doesn't bother me," though he said that depends on how close the panels get and what effect the project will have on property values.
But Chenier also pointed out that being so close to sugar cane growing isn't without its impacts, either, recalling the chemical smell that wafts into his business when farmers spray the fields and noting the close passes of a crop duster over their store recently.
"If I'd have had a pole that was 50 feet, I'd have hit him," Chenier quipped.
Editor's note: This story was updated 8:15 a.m. Tuesday, June 18, 2024, to provide a DESRI estimate of the distance between Chenier's market and proposed solar panels. An earlier estimate used an online mapping tool.