CARMEL, NY – Last week, Putnam County Executive Kevin Byrne joined friend, farmer and American Land Rescue Fund founder Alex Fasulo alongside country music star John Rich, Special Envoy for American Landowners at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for a special roundtable discussion held upstate yesterday in Schuylerville.

The gathering focused on the real challenges facing local governments and landowners from Albany’s heavy-handed laws and unelected bureaucracies such as the Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES). Participants described how these entities have repeatedly overridden home rule, local control, and the property rights that should be fundamental to every American landowner.

As County Executive, Byrne shared Putnam’s unique “down-state” perspective: significant parkland, more farms than many people realize, preserved open space, and numerous lakes and reservoirs. “These aren’t abstract talking points. They’re real places and real people,” Byrne said.

He also pushed back on the State’s decision to shut down Indian Point and remove 2,000 megawatts of clean, reliable power from the grid. Byrne noted that the shortsighted move is a major reason Albany is now aggressively forcing solar and battery energy storage (BESS) projects into communities that don’t want them and can’t support them. He supports an all-of-the-above energy approach that includes nuclear and reduces dependence on foreign energy, but stressed that any such approach must still respect local control and the rights of landowners.

“When Albany relies on unelected bureaucrats to override the decisions of our duly elected local representatives, they’re disenfranchising voters. That has to stop,” Byrne said.

Byrne expressed gratitude to Fasulo and Rich for including him in the discussion. “New York needs to get this right—and the rest of the country should pay close attention. As the old saying goes, when New York catches a cold, the rest of the country gets sick. Let’s get New York healthy again.