Congress quietly kills solar tax credits on farmland, slowing clean energy
H.R. 1080 — No Solar Panels on Fertile Farmland Act of 2025 · Filed by Mary Miller (R-IL) · Introduced Feb 6, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill removes federal tax credits for solar panels and other renewable energy installations placed on prime farmland. It amends six sections of the tax code to exclude properties on prime farmland from eligibility for residential clean energy credits, renewable electricity production credits, energy credits, clean electricity investment credits, and clean electricity production credits. The effect is to make solar and renewable energy projects on high-quality agricultural land financially unviable by eliminating the tax incentives that currently make them competitive.
Why we flagged it
The bill's functional effect is to reduce tax incentives for renewable energy deployment by carving out prime farmland from six separate federal tax credits. While framed as agricultural protection, it operates as a targeted disincentive to solar and renewable energy projects on a specific land category.
What the text implies
- Eliminates a revenue stream for farmers who could lease land for solar, reducing farm income diversification and economic resilience in rural areas.
- Slows renewable energy deployment by removing a key economic incentive, potentially delaying decarbonization goals and raising long-term electricity costs for consumers.
The full analysis lists 4 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
conventional energy producers (fossil fuel generators); agricultural landowners (by reducing competition for land use); incumbent utilities (by slowing distributed renewable capacity)