Worthington residents lobby on Beacon Hill for temporary solar moratorium in their town

BOSTON — A group of Worthington residents took their advocacy to the State House Wednesday morning to encourage legislators to adopt a new bill that would place a temporary moratorium on large-scale solar arrays and battery energy storage (BESS) units in town.

The bill, H. 5294, filed by Sen. Paul Mark and Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, calls for a one-year pause on solar developments in Worthington. The bill is pending with Joint Committee on Municipal and Regional Government.

Residents at a Feb. 24 special Town Meeting approved a series of warrant articles pertaining to the temporary moratorium. In addition to a one-year pause, other articles call for banning ground-mounted arrays within the town’s water supply district and flood plain; creating an overlay district, indicating areas in town that meet the criteria to develop large-scale arrays; and amending the town’s site-plan review process related to large-scale solar projects. Those changes await the approval of the Attorney General’s office.

The bill filed by Mark and Sabadosa would apply to development plans currently in the pipeline and any plan that comes before the town over the next year, according to Select Board Chair Charley Rose. This includes pending plans by BlueWave Solar to develop 7,462 ground-mounted agrivoltaic panels in an open field at 190 Ridge Road.

Since late last fall, residents have raised concerns about large solar projects, citing risks of water pollution, fire hazards and the lack of resources in small towns to counteract a battery fire should one occur. There are also worries that large companies will exploit the town and gradually diminish its rural character.

Residents who testified before the Joint Committee on Municipal and Regional Government said they hope the temporary moratorium would give the town time to prepare appropriate regulations, ensuring critical water sources and natural habitats are protected.

Jim Downey said concerns are not an instance of being a “NIMBY,” an acronym for “not in my back yard.”

“My reason for support and the pausing of any further solar applications is not NIMBY-based, it is not even NIMBY-adjacent,” Downey, speaking in person before the committee. “Let me be perfectly clear, we seek further time to consider these applications. We are not seeking an exemption.”

Resident Emily Larabee testified that no community has been able to successfully push back against developments in Land Court. She cited the Dover Amendment, a 1985 state law that prohibits municipalities from banning or unreasonably regulating solar energy systems, as one law that has weakened the voices of communities throughout the state.

“As someone who has spent my career in procurement at the Department of Energy’s renewable energy laboratory, I never imagined in any way, shape or form that I would be opposing renewable energy,” she said via Zoom. “As a mother there are few things that concern me more than the future of our planet, and I admire the state’s aggressive climate goals. However, I have been deeply disappointed in the state’s inability to protect its constituents from the inappropriate siting of large-scale solar and battery energy storage systems.”

Like Larabee, resident Helen Sharron Pollard, who co-owns the Worthington Golf Course and is the founder of the Massachusetts Coalition Against Industrial Solar, said developers with more money and resources are choking out the voice of the local community.

She said that vetting proposals submitted by developers is a, “fear-based process that has no feedback loop against highly resourced, foreign, private equity-backed developers with the capacity to outpace and overwhelm a small town’s resources. That’s not a balanced process.”

If Worthington’s moratorium is approved, it would be the first in the state. The towns of Blandford and Northfield also voted as a community to accept a moratorium, and both have been struck down by the Attorney General’s Office.

The chair of Blandford’s Select Board, Jacqueline Coury, voiced her support for the temporary pause for large-scale arrays in Worthington via Zoom. Like Worthington, she said, small towns don’t have the resources or infrastructure if an emergency were to occur.

“Contrary to what the commonwealth legislators may assume, a moratorium is not intended to stop solar or clean energy projects — it’s a planning tool that allows small towns to catch up, develop regulation, and ensure public safety,” she said.