Sumter Citizens Halt Third Proposed Solar Farm Project
Sumter County has Created the Blueprint for Protecting Their Land From "Clean Energy" Initiatives & They're Just Getting Started
Sumter County Board of Zoning Appeals unanimously denied a special exception to zone a proposed solar farm due to the enormous outcry from Sumter residents on May 14th, 2025. The project has been halted for now.
The project, known as White Palmetto Solar Farm, was supposed to stretch over more than 1700 acres across Sumter County. This project stemmed from Treaty Oak Clean Energy, a company that was founded in 2022 in Austin, Texas and is a branch of a larger parent company based out of Australia.
Origins of Treaty Oak Clean Energy
Treaty Oak Clean Energy, LLC was registered in Austin, Texas in September of 2021. According to Treaty Oak’s website, Macquarie Asset Management’s Green Investment Group (GIG) announced its acquisition of Treaty Oak Clean Energy, LLC in December 2022. Macquarie Asset Management (MAM) is the world’s biggest infrastructure asset manager that is a part of Macquarie Group Limited, also known as the Macquarie Bank, a multinational investment banking and financial services based out of Sydney, Australia.
With just a quick look at this MAM Green Investment Group’s website, several red flags are immediately raised. For example, there is an entire page on their website dedicated to “corporate governance” (also called “green governance later on the page) and their annual “progress” reports that date back to 2013. These reports consistently focus on their Green Ratings Report (receiving mostly A-AAA top scores), Green Impact Statement, “broader sustainability considerations” led by Macquarie Asset Management (MAM) relating to “managing” Environmental, Social, and Governance known as ESG. To learn more about what ESGs are and how they are moving into SC, read this breakdown from the executive director of the Mom and Pop Alliance, Diane Hardy.
The 2024 Progress Report includes an “Independent Assurance Report to the Directors of UK Green Investment Bank LTD on Certain Green Impact Data”. Take a look on page 22 linked HERE.
However, the Macquarie Bank’s website rivals that of Blackrock. Check out their FY2024 ESG approach and governance report HERE.
The Throwdown: Sumter Board of Appeals Meeting
When representatives of Treaty Oak were asked by the board about their other successful solar farm projects, they couldn’t point to any. All of their current (two) projects are still pending.
One Treaty Oak employee spent the first part of their meeting presenting a presentation that you can read HERE. (Note: This employee got a few facts about the project wrong, including how wooded the area is that the project was planned for the citizens in attendance made sure to correct him)
Treaty Oak spent some time bragging about the 1800 postcards that they mailed out to the surrounding property owners and the event they held. This caused quite an uproar for the citizens as nearly everyone in the crowd stated they never received a postcard. One neighbor, James Dennis, found out about the event, and told the board that there was only 25 people in attendance and of those 25 people, Dennis was the “only land representative there.” According to Dennis, the rest of the attendees were the two families whose land would be used for the solar farm and Treaty Oak Clean Energy. You can watch his description of this event in the video below.
“They sent out 1800 postcards, where was everybody?” Dennis stated that nearly half of the attendees of Treaty Oak’s event were from Texas. He asked one of the Texas employees how long he had worked for Treaty Oak Clean Energy. The employee’s answer? 9 months.
Following Dennis’s public comment, a representative from Treaty Oak approached the podium to rebut the previous landowner’s statements. This is where the story changes quickly. The representative read an email he had sent recently to another landowner that did not receive their postcard, first pointing out there was no legal requirement to alert them at all, but instead was a measure to be transparent to all residents within a 3 mile radius. The representative blamed the United States Postal Service for only sending the postcards to one zip code (which many attendees denied as he was reading this letter. This is around the 13 minute mark of the video.)
“This is what I really want to emphasize: It’s not as important that we did it perfectly, clearly we didn’t. What’s important is as reasonable folks, who you all are [addressing the board], you can read that email and hear that sentiment and think ‘is that someone that was doing that level best to reach out to the community? *attendees shake their head* I think a reasonable person would say yeah.” Of course, more head shakes came from attendees of the meeting.
At the end of Treaty Oak’s rebuttal, an attendee stood in the doorway and stated that she is an employee of the United States Postal Service. As the board tried to tell her that only the board could ask questions, she said that she wanted to clear the record “considering he’s trying to put blame on the post office.” She stated that she has proof of when her letter was delivered “and it wasn’t a postcard back in October. I got a letter May 3rd, for today. Yeah, bring it on…” (See the 17 minute mark of the video.)
After one more statement from a board member who was clearly unhappy with how Treaty Oak had handled the postcard situation, a vote was called and Sumter’s Board of Zoning Appeals unanimously denied the special exception to zone the White Palmetto Solar Farm planned by Treaty Oak Clean Energy. A deafening cheer and applause erupted throughout the floor with some attendees raising their signs at media in attendance.
This Isn’t Sumter’s First Solar Farm Battle…& It Probably Won’t Be The Last
Like many counties in South Carolina, Sumter County residents have spent the past two years fighting various solar farm projects. One of those residents, Ashleigh Goza, has been fighting on the front lines since 2023 and has already helped defeat two other proposed solar farms slated for Sumter County.
According to Goza, the public had very little warning about all of these projects. For one of the projects, signs alerting the public to the final reading were only posted on certain roads just days before the reading was supposed to take place. Unfortunately, this is a very common practice in county governments across South Carolina.
When Goza noticed these signs, she started attending county council meetings and researching the proposed solar farm projects. After attending the first county council meeting that was scheduled the same day the first signs alerting the community to a solar farm project, Goza realized that “the residents have no idea this kind of project is coming down the pipeline because there is no communication.”
Through her research, Goza found that one of these projects were backed by BlackRock and Vanguard. These projects seemed like a “done deal” yet she continued to persevere. Goza found that these solar farms produce a high level of contaminants and are harmful to natural resources. “No one knows about the fallout of the clean up process with these solar plants...none of these counties are prepared for the waste.”
By educating and mobilizing several farmers and concerned residents, Goza was able to defeat the two proposed solar farms in December of 2023. By working together, concerned Sumter citizens met at Goza’s house and made a strategic plan on how they were going to stop the proposed solar farms. Goza noted that when tackling these solar farm projects, “it’s imperative to hit it from all sides in the community.”
Sumter County Residents Make Protective Solar Ordinance
Following these victories, Goza and other residents worked with the county planning commission to make a solar ordinance and it was “the tightest ordinance in South Carolina at that time.” Since then, Goza has assisted neighboring counties fighting similar solar farm battles. “I believe that we will have to continue to battle through this…We have to stay vigilant so this will not continue to happen.”
During our discussion, Goza shared the reluctance she’s observed among rural county citizens when getting involved in local politics. “The residents become so leery of politicians because you feel like there is a perpetual hidden agenda primarily due to the lack of communication.”
However, Sumter County residents have persisted and have now halted three huge solar farm projects, saving thousands of acres from destruction. “The silver lining is that the community pulls together,” Goza stated, “It doesn’t matter what race you are, what background you have, what social status you have, everyone comes together.”