A bill that would have severely limited local control of industrial-scale solar facilities has failed to become law.

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The 2022 session of the Kentucky General Assembly ended on April 14th with the House of Representatives not approving the Senate’s changes to House Bill 392, an act relating to merchant [solar] generation facilities.

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In its original form, HB 392 contained several explicit protections of local control. That version passed the House with near unanimous consent, 91 to 3 on February 7th.

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However, when the bill went to the Senate it was stripped and replaced with language from a competing bill being advanced by the utility-scale solar industry. The Senate passed the solar industry’s “substitute” version by a vote of 28 to 6 on March 14

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The bill then went back to the House of Representatives, for a process known as concurrence.

Clark Coalition and allied organizations worked diligently to raise awareness of the significant issues with the substitute bill – which would have undermined local jurisdiction on industrial solar, and significantly reduced the ability of local citizens to have input and determine local land-use policy for their communities.  

At the close of the General Assembly session, HB 392 was one of just a handful of bills set for concurrence that did not receive a vote in the House.

While this is a short-term victory for maintaining local control of industrial solar, we expect the solar industry to lobby aggressively for their bill in the 2023 legislative session.

The failure of the solar industry’s proposed state bill means that Clark County will have the opportunity to address industrial solar in our Comprehensive Plan update. That update is due to start this summer.

It is critical that Clark County’s citizens take part in this essential Comprehensive Plan process.

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Clark Coalition will be here to keep you informed of how you can participate in the Comprehensive Plan process.

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