Country Star Joins Trump Administration In Denouncing Hochul’s Solar Energy Project

President Trump earned a second term in part based on his promise to roll back the left’s laundry list of “green energy” projects that critics say tend to do more harm than good.

But that hasn’t stopped blue-state officials from pushing their own initiatives.

And in New York, the actions of Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul are receiving some direct backlash from within the Trump administration. 

As the New York Post reported:

USDA Sec. Brooke Rollins and EPA Chief Lee Zeldin, along with country singer John Rich, have co-signed a letter skewering the Hochul administration’s industrialization of prime farmland for solar energy complexes while potentially strapping costs to rural communities.

“Nothing is more insulting to hardworking New Yorkers than Albany politicians who think they know it all and enthusiastically override local control and railroad local communities,” Zeldin told The Post.

“The recent actions of Hochul and her allies to force upstate communities to take on the burden of far more solar farms on agricultural land is on-brand elitism that New Yorkers have grown to despise.”

The letter received some attention on social media:

So NY will have variable power but NY'ers will starve.
Another stupid idea from a democrat.

— Angry taxpayer (@Antrytaxpayer) July 21, 2026

This dumb lady needs to go, honestly NY has had enough of this person who should not even be in office. Upstate NY is beautiful so let’s ruin that too. They ruin everything they touch

— empressomega (@thecaptianomega) July 22, 2026

𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐆𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃: 𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐘𝐎𝐑𝐊 𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐅𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐑 𝐅𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐒 𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐂𝐔𝐒𝐀𝐁𝐋𝐄

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins used a Senate hearing exchange with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) this week to… pic.twitter.com/eQkc47vph0

— M.A. Rothman (@MichaelARothman) July 22, 2026

Here’s the full text from the post above:

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins used a Senate hearing exchange with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) this week to redirect blame for New York farmers’ struggles squarely onto Albany’s own energy policy.

When Gillibrand pressed her on farm costs and suggested the administration wasn’t helping New York farmers, Rollins didn’t take the bait: “𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘦, 𝘚𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘠𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 — 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦.” She added she’d visited upstate New York farmers twice in recent months to hear the complaints firsthand.

The clash lands weeks after Rollins, alongside EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, sent a formal letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration 𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐘𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬 on every solar project greenlit through its permitting process — accusing the state of violating USDA standards meant to protect the nation’s most productive farmland. Federal officials gave New York 𝟑𝟎 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐝.

Gillibrand is the first New York senator to sit on the Agriculture Committee in nearly 40 years — which makes it a little awkward that her own state is now the subject of a formal federal inquiry into whether it’s trading working farms for solar subsidies.

𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞.

🚨 Prime farmland should grow food—not disappear.

Today, alongside @epaleezeldin and @johnrich , I sent a formal letter to @GovKathyHochul demanding answers about New York’s decision to fast-track industrial solar projects on some of America’s most productive farmland.

When… pic.twitter.com/XuyzOIlENW

— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) June 28, 2026

KHGI provided these details:

Small Business Administration chief Kelly Loeffler told The Post on Tuesday, “New York has two-and-a-half-million small businesses and we’re watching a state apparatus go against these small businesses in favor of 18 large solar farms that are going to only raise the cost of operating for those small businesses, which employ nearly half of New York’s population. This is an example of big government overreach. That is the promise of socialism.”

 

Many of the multibillion-dollar solar contracts in New York have been given to foreign companies, including Canada’s Boralex, France’s EDF Renewables, and South Korea’s Cypress Creek Renewables, according to The Post.

A spokesperson for Hochul told the media outlet that New York was a “national leader in agricultural land protections” and had “invested hundreds of millions of dollars toward protecting agricultural land since the inception of the State Farmland Protection Program in 1992.”

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Here’s more from Rich:

𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍 𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐇 𝐒𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐍 𝐈𝐍 𝐀𝐒 𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐌𝐏’𝐒 𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐍𝐕𝐎𝐘 — 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐄𝐓: 𝐇𝐎𝐂𝐇𝐔𝐋’𝐒 𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐑 𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐌𝐄

President Trump swore Big & Rich’s John Rich into the Oval Office this week as the country’s first-ever unpaid Special Envoy for… pic.twitter.com/mcF3jigwf8

— M.A. Rothman (@MichaelARothman) July 10, 2026