A green energy boondoggle on publicly owned property in the northern Lower Peninsula has been scuttled by negative feedback.

According to reports, RWE Clean Energy, the company behind a Gaylord-area 200 megawatt solar farm project, has opted to partner with private landowners instead of leasing 420 acres of publicly owned state forest land from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The reversal was announced Tuesday after a growing number of Michigan lawmakers and Otsego County residents demanded answers on RWE’s plan to destroy a major portion of state forest near Gaylord to install solar panels.

A DNR spokesman did not respond to a request from The Midwesterner for more information on the project.

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“Any person who thinks swapping trees for solar panels is a good idea has no business being employed by the department tasked with responsibly managing and protecting our natural resources,” state Rep. Ken Borton, R-Gaylord, said in a statement. “DNR staff either completely forgot their job or were entirely corrupt from the start.

“Whatever the truth is, it’s inexcusable and nothing short of a fireable offense,” Borton added. “The people involved in these decisions shouldn’t be out of the job for too long considering how cozy they are with the solar farm industry.”

More than 50 Republican and Democrat colleagues sent a letter to DNR Director Scott Bowen demanding answers on the proposed 200-megawatt solar farm west of Gaylord.

“Projects like this highlight the blatant hypocrisy within the DNR. You’re completely willing to jump into bed with the solar industry and the foreign powers controlling their purse strings but deny other smaller land-lease proposals without a second thought,” the lawmakers wrote. “You have a responsibility to be good stewards of public land – replacing forests with solar panels does not live up to that standard,” they said.

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“Local officials should never be left in the dark when massive projects of any kind are planned in their municipalities; especially when their presumed partners at the DNR are the ones hiding the facts,” the lawmakers added. “We’ve heard from township officials who say they did not know the project near Gaylord was official until reporting exposed it late last week. That is unacceptable and a clear example that your department has forgotten its responsibility to work hand in hand with local governments.”

Scot Whitcomb, the DNR’s director of public lands, previously told MLive that the property is “less than pristine.” Some portions of the site were clear-cut and replanted with red pine, while others were forested and included oil and gas wellheads.

“Fearing they won’t meet new unrealistic and costly energy mandates, state bureaucrats now plan to clear-cut Michigan forests,” state Sen. Michele Hoitenga, R-Manton, said in a statement. “Radical Democrats who once dismissed the idea of solar farms being built in our backyards as absurd are now making it a reality by destroying state forestland, all under the guise of promoting a clean energy green new deal.

“Michiganders deserve answers and accountability. The DNR has a duty to protect our wildlife and public lands,” Hoitenga added. “This plot to destroy forests and drive animals from their habits in order to raise funding from leasing agreements is shocking and unacceptable. I will do everything in my power to work with my fellow lawmakers and put the lights out on this horrible, unnatural plan.”

With Republicans now in charge of the state House, lawmakers promised to probe DNR efforts to build solar farms across the Wolverine State.

“The curtain is coming down on these terrible ideas and House Republicans aren’t going to stop digging until we uncover every single place the DNR plans to kill wildlife to further the radical green energy agenda,” Borton said. “I’ve already been made aware of similar projects in Otsego and Roscommon counties.

“I’m sure the buck doesn’t stop there,” Borton added. “The DNR has lost the public trust and failed at managing conservation efforts; there is no way we’re going to let them find new ways to screw up energy production, especially at the expense of our natural resources.”