Country singer John Rich is sharply criticizing New York Gov. Kathy Hochul over the state’s renewable energy policies, accusing her administration of silencing farmers and sidelining local officials in upstate New York.
The 52-year-old Big & Rich member has joined landowners, activists and local officials challenging New York’s Office of Renewable Energy Siting, or ORES. The state agency reviews and approves major renewable energy and transmission projects.
Last month, Rich released “Dear Kathy,” a country song aimed at the Democratic governor as she seeks re-election.
In the song, Rich speaks for farmers and landowners opposing large-scale solar and wind projects on upstate New York farmland. He argues that ORES has weakened local control while placing family farms, rural communities and private property rights at risk.
During a recent interview with Fox News Digital, Rich highlighted the final line of “Dear Kathy,” which asks, “Why do you hate these people so much?”
“What have they ever done to you except pay taxes and put food on your table? That’s it,” Rich said.
“Why do you hate these people?” he continued. “Because only somebody that has a vindictive spirit would do what she’s doing to them — or greed.”
“I think greed is probably the largest driver in it because these companies that are coming in, building these huge fields. Listen, if you add up all the plans they have coming into upstate New York, it’s over 100 square miles of solar panels,” Rich added.
The dispute centers on New York’s centralized permitting process for large-scale wind and solar developments. Created in 2020 under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, ORES generally oversees renewable energy projects capable of generating at least 25 megawatts. Its rules encourage developers to avoid the state’s most productive agricultural soils and require them to minimize or offset impacts when farmland cannot be avoided.
ORES can also waive local zoning and land-use rules it considers “unreasonably burdensome.” Critics say that authority gives state officials excessive control over farmland and leaves communities with little influence over projects proposed in their areas.
In his interview with Fox News Digital, Rich claimed Hochul’s administration relied on research from Cornell University to alter the definition of prime farmland. He argued that the change made it easier for solar and wind developments to move forward on agricultural land.
“She decided she didn’t like their definition of prime farmland because if it’s prime, it’s protected from solar and wind and projects like that,” Rich said.
“So they just redefined it. They just came up with a whole new equation and determined, well, based on these new numbers, there’s really no such thing as prime farmland anymore in upstate New York. So we can do whatever the hell we want to these people.”
“Oh, by the way, we put ORES in place. So if they try to stop us, we just run right over the top of them,” he continued. “I mean, it is a complete and total chokeout that she’s put on these farmers up there.”
“Some of these families have owned their farms, been in their families since before the Revolutionary War,” Rich said.
“You’re talking about one of the original 13 colonies, New York, and to think that 250 years later, after these same people’s ancestors had to fight off the British, now they’re standing there fighting with their own governor in the United States of America.”
“It is astonishing, and I find it to be disgusting. I also think it’s probably unconstitutional,” he added.
Since taking office in 2021, Hochul has continued to pursue New York’s renewable energy goals.
Her administration has supported large-scale solar and wind development while defending the state’s approach to farmland. Officials have argued that renewable energy projects are not consuming New York’s “best farmland” and that leasing property for solar installations can help farmers keep their land within their families.
When Fox News Digital requested comment, Hochul’s office rejected Rich’s criticism.
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“If he really wants to help farmers, maybe he can write a song calling on his buddy Donald Trump to lift the tariffs, end his reckless war with Iran that is driving up gas and diesel prices, and rein in the ICE raids, all of which are hurting farmers here in New York and across the country,” Ken Lovett, a senior communications adviser on energy and the environment for Hochul, said.
Rich said he first became aware of the controversy after watching Alexandra Fasulo, an upstate New York landowner and ORES critic, discuss it on social media. He said he was shocked by the suggestion that the state could override landowners, zoning boards, mayors and other local officials when determining where major renewable energy projects would be built.
“I said, that can’t be the case. I’m gonna go up and see this for myself,” Rich recalled.
Rich said ORES’ authority threatens “home rule,” the principle that local governments and landowners should retain influence over how property is used in their communities.
During his visit, Rich held two town hall meetings, including one at Fasulo’s farm, where he met with hundreds of farmers and landowners.
“We had Amish people standing in the room being silent, standing in the back,” Rich said. “It looked like something out of a movie.”
“And we had this discussion about ‘What are we going to do about this governor running over everybody?’” he continued. “And man, the sentiment in the room was so much frustration and feeling of bewilderment that what do you do? I mean, she’s put something into gear here that just runs us over and takes away our voice.”
Rich told Fox News Digital that the meetings ultimately inspired him to write “Dear Kathy.”
“I left there thinking to myself, I need to put this song out, ‘Dear Kathy,’” he recalled. “I need to write a song for the governor of New York on behalf of all those people whose voices she has silenced. And so that led to me with a pencil and a piece of paper and a guitar writing a letter or a song to Kathy Hochul.”
Rich officially released the song and its accompanying music video on Oct. 28. The video features affected areas of upstate New York, local landowners and the Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, New York, which has actively opposed large wind projects near its grounds.
“And I jokingly say in the video, ‘What do you get the woman who has everything, including your freedom in her back pocket? Well, you give her the one thing she doesn’t have — a country song,’” Rich said.
“And so I wrote ‘Dear Kathy’ and it really was my way of speaking on behalf of those people that she will not listen to.”
Rich called “Dear Kathy” a “fight song” for the farmers he met and said the conflict went beyond traditional party divisions.
“One interesting thing about those farmers that I met — they were Democrat, Republican, probably more Democrat than Republican, actually,” he said. “And so it’s not a partisan thing. Owning land is an American thing. I mean it may be one of the last things we all agree on in this country is that if you own land, if you bought that land, and you take care of that land, that’s your land.”
“You get to determine what happens to it or what doesn’t happen to it,” he continued. “And that’s exactly what I felt up there. It was an across-the-board repudiation of Kathy Hochul and her assault on their land and on them and on their legacies.”
“To me, as bad as that is, that was a beautiful experience actually for me to sit up there knowing that this is not a partisan deal, and I’m sitting in the room with both sides of the aisle, but everybody is in unison,” Rich added.
Despite his attacks on Hochul, Rich said he would welcome the chance to meet with the governor and discuss landowners’ concerns face to face.
“If Kathy Hochul wanted to sit with me and have a meeting, I would jump on the next thing smoking to be up there,” he said.
“I mean, I would sit down at her desk. She could bring anybody she wants and I would just ask questions. ‘Why do you think this is OK? I mean you’re still an American. Don’t you think that this is against the Constitution? Home rule is a real thing. You don’t think that people that you govern have the right to determine what happens to their own land and not just a farm here or there, a hundred square miles of land?’ I would just ask her basic questions.”
