Inflicting heavy fines on developers of a project billed as supplying clean, renewable energy, a federal jury has awarded a couple in southwest Georgia $135.5 million after runoff from "Lumpkin Solar" severely polluted waters and soils on their rural property.
The companies slapped with stiff fines are Nashville, Tenn.-based Silicon Ranch Corp. and its contractor IEA Inc. "According to the lawsuit, Silicon Ranch Corp. has developed more than 160 solar panel facilities across the country, many of which were built by IEA," the Associated Press reported.
In an email to the Associated Press, Silicon Ranch said it would appeal the verdicts and blamed its contractor for the problems at Lumpkin Solar.
The pollution caused by the solar farm near Lumpkin is no isolated incident.
"Runoff from a growing number of giant solar farms polluting rivers and streams in rural South Georgia is becoming a major concern," reported Georgia Public Broadcasting last October, citing the opinion of the state's environmental regulators.
Even after the developers of the ill-fated Lumpkin Solar farm were five months into their lawsuit, Braun points out, Meta's renewable energy chief had nothing but praise for the Georgia facility.
The company's commitment to the "E" in ESG is called into question by its participation in a solar energy project that uprooted timberland and farmland in order to build a taxpayer-subsidized solar farm that wound up polluting wetlands and soils on somebody else's land.
https://www.cfact.org/2023/06/06/solar-farm-runoff-pollutes-property-couple-awarded-135-million/
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