State Rep. Ken Borton on Monday joined 52 of his Republican and Democrat colleagues in sending a bipartisan letter to Department of Natural Resources Director Scott Bowen demanding answers on a recently exposed proposed solar farm near Gaylord. DNR officials said they plan to allow the destruction of 420 acres of state forest, located just west of Gaylord, to clear the way for solar panel installations.

“Any person who thinks swapping trees for solar panels is a good idea has no business being employed by the department tasked with responsibly managing and protecting our natural resources,” said Borton, R-Gaylord. “DNR staff either completely forgot their job or were entirely corrupt from the start. Whatever the truth is, it’s inexcusable and nothing short of a fireable offense. The people involved in these decisions shouldn’t be out of the job for too long considering how cozy they are with the solar farm industry.”

Public outrage has exploded since the project plans were uncovered last week. In response, RWE Clean Energy, which operates a solar field adjacent to the public land, reversed course and said it would not be pursuing expansion onto the state forest. Staff with RWE Clean Energy initially requested the DNR make the land available for the installation of solar farms.

The legislators also demanded the DNR release any information on other locations where the DNR has agreed to lease public land for private green-energy use. Since the proposed project near Gaylord became public, Borton has received messages from hundreds of people expressing concern and sharing stories of similar projects in different areas.

“The curtain is coming down on these terrible ideas and House Republicans aren’t going to stop digging until we uncover every single place the DNR plans to kill wildlife to further the radical green energy agenda,” Borton said. “I’ve already been made aware of similar projects in Otsego and Roscommon counties. I’m sure the buck doesn’t stop there. The DNR has lost the public trust and failed at managing conservation efforts; there is no way we’re going to let them find new ways to screw up energy production, especially at the expense of our natural resources.”

The project near Gaylord was only exposed after quality reporting by Mlive. However, the DNR continues to roadblock a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, filed by reporters in October, to learn more about the proposal.

“The cat is out of the bag, and it’s not happy. Yet, instead of facing the music, the DNR would rather try and stuff the poor thing right back in there,” Borton said. “But that’s the thing about secrets; you can’t unlearn them. It’s time the DNR come clean on this disastrous plan.”

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