My California colleague Kristen Castaños has written an alert about a recent Fresno County Superior Court decision that denied a challenge to Fresno County’s cancellation of a Williamson Act contract to accommodate a solar generating project.

The decision is the first time a court has considered the interplay between the Williamson Act, a California statute that seeks to protect agricultural land, and California’s directive to increase reliance on renewable energy in the state. In rejecting the challenge, the court gave the County substantial deference to determine whether the public interest in developing solar projects outweighs the public interest in protecting agriculture.

You can read Kristen’s complete alert at our firm’s website. *UPDATE: Kristen was interviewed by the Fresno Bee about this case. Read a summary here.

Photo of Sarah Johnson Phillips Sarah Johnson Phillips

Sarah Johnson Phillips is a partner in the firm’s Energy Development practice group, where she focuses on energy project development; buying, selling and financing energy projects; and energy regulatory matters. She advises large wind and solar project developers on permitting and real estate…

Sarah Johnson Phillips is a partner in the firm’s Energy Development practice group, where she focuses on energy project development; buying, selling and financing energy projects; and energy regulatory matters. She advises large wind and solar project developers on permitting and real estate matters, including obtaining major project permits, negotiating leases and easements, and title work.  She also has particular experience working on distributed solar and community-shared solar projects, including negotiating offtake agreements, leases, financing arrangements, M&A transactions, interconnection agreements, and regulatory matters. In addition, Sarah works with large energy consumers on a range of regulatory issues and proceedings affecting ratepayers and regularly appears before the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission.

Click here for Sarah Johnson Phillips’ full bio.