A rural Idaho county banned renewables. It’s having second thoughts.

A rural Idaho county that banned large-scale solar and wind in 2024 is now considering reversing course. Bannock County commissioners voted 2-1 to ban utility-scale renewables after residents pushed back hard on a proposed solar project near the town of Downey. This fall, the commission is set to vote on a new ordinance that would once again allow solar, wind, and nuclear development in the county. The push comes as Idaho's largest utility expects electricity demand to grow sharply by 2030, and as neighboring counties have collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax revenue from renewable energy projects on their land.

The debate splits neighbors. Some landowners have signed or considered leasing deals with solar developers, seeing steady income as a lifeline for farms strained by drought and climate change, plus potential tax dollars for towns that have lost grocery stores, banks, and other services. Others object to solar taking over farmland and changing the rural landscape, and some prefer nuclear power instead. One developer has already walked away from a project in the county because of the ban; another is waiting to see whether the ban lifts before deciding whether to move forward with a proposed 300-megawatt solar and battery storage project.

For homeowners elsewhere, this is a reminder that local zoning fights like this one are becoming more common — nationally, roughly 1 in 4 counties now have some kind of restriction on solar or wind development, most of them rural. Whether such rules exist, and how they might change, can affect what kinds of clean energy projects — and jobs or tax revenue tied to them — show up near your own community.