Rural Missouri stands on the edge of a new chapter, and that story should be written by the people who know the land best. When we talk about renewable energy and new energy investments in Missouri, we’re focused on opportunities that can help keep family farms intact and give our small towns a stronger footing for the future, while helping America meet its rapidly expanding energy needs.
Throughout the state’s history, rural Missourians have powered the state through farming and agriculture. Today, they have the chance to prosper in a new way. Solar land leases are a new cash crop, allowing families to diversify their operations to provide financial security. Long-term energy lease payments can make the difference between selling off land or passing it down to the next generation, allowing families to keep their agricultural identity while adding a dependable revenue stream that isn’t at the mercy of commodity prices or the weather.
Across Missouri, renewable energy is already providing landowners with stable new income that strengthens local communities. These projects support thousands of jobs in rural Missouri and generate an estimated $16 million to $22 million each year in land-lease payments for farmers and landowners. They also deliver tens of millions of dollars in urgently needed local tax revenue for rural schools, hospitals, emergency services, and county infrastructure.
Protecting the rights of farmers and landowners to use their land as an investment in the future builds on the best of Missouri’s traditions and values. A landowner who chooses to host a project is exercising the same independence that guided previous generations, deciding what crops to plant, when to invest, and how to build a future for their family.
When Missouri farmers and landowners have the freedom to use their land to provide for their families and their communities, the entire state benefits.
As families struggle to stay in agriculture and to keep their land intact, creating economic opportunity in energy can be part of a broader strategy to keep rural Missouri strong and vibrant. Energy dollars that once left the state can instead stay in Missouri, creating affordable power for the state’s consumers and showing that the state is open for business and attractive to new employers and investment.
Missouri landowners should not be denied the economic opportunities renewable energy development provides. The uses of privately owned property should not be dictated by the government. Protecting landowners’ rights to partner in responsible energy development is not a break from the past; it’s a new way to preserve Missouri traditions, preserve family farms and keep them intact for future generations.
Jeff Clark is President and CEO of the Advanced Power Alliance, which works with landowners, rural communities, and policymakers to ensure that every state has an opportunity to participate in an all‑of‑the‑above energy economy.
