Resident and renewable energy activist Ted Glick will be on a three-day hunger strike next week, across the street from the high school, calling attention to the July 4 deadline for the school district to benefit from a solar energy federal tax break.
Bloomfield resident and renewable energy advocate Ted Glick will undertake a hunger strike beginning at sunrise, Monday, Jan. 5, across the street from the high school.
He is doing this to call attention to the July 4 deadline to receive a federal tax break for solar energy projects. He plans to return home at sunset, continue his fast there and return to the sidewalk each sunrise. Glick and his group, the Bloomfield Citizens Solar Campaign, are long-time proponents of solar energy for the school district.
“I’m going to stop eating for three days,” he said recently to this newspaper. “My last meal will be Sunday, Jan. 4, then just water and a little salt. There will definitely be other people there. We’ll be in front of the school administration building, on Broad Street and Belleville Avenue, from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. We’ll have signs saying ‘Solar Energy Now.’ I don’t know if the others will be fasting.”
He said he is doing this because he and his group “feel backed into a corner.”
“It’s either do this or give up,” he said. “We’re hoping this will get through to the school board. There’s a real time limit.”
During the Biden Administration, he said, there was a bill called the Inflation Reduction Act. In it was a provision for companies to receive tax credits, up to 30 percent, for solar and wind projects. The provision was to last for 10 years starting in 2022. But the succeeding Trump Administration wanted this cut.
“The ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ proposed by the GOP was entirely vacating that legislation for wind and solar energy,” Glick continued. “Those were the two big ones.”
Republicans in the House of Representatives passed the bill sending it to the Senate where five GOP senators refused to sign on to the “Big Beautiful Bill” because of these tax break elimination, putting the entire bill in jeopardy. Consequently, solar and wind tax credits were restored and the bill passed, but construction on a solar project had to begin by July 4, 2026, and be operative by Dec. 31, 2027.
“This is key to why I’m doing this,” Glick said. “There’s a July 4 deadline for any solar project. Not just for Bloomfield. This is the law. The process has to move forward or it’ll be impossible to meet the deadline. But more specifically, the school board is not moving this forward. There were two proposals by reputable companies: Gabel Associates and Talva Energy. The district wouldn’t have to put upfront money for solar installation or maintenance and it would be eligible for a power purchase agreement. It would be financially beneficial. You wouldn’t have to worry about the price of coal or gas. Sunlight is free.”
With a power purchase agreement, the district would allow a solar company to install an infrastructure on its property, typically building roofs, for solar panels to generate electricity which it would then purchase from the solar company, at a fixed price, avoiding market fluctuations. The solar company would own the infrastructure, maintain it and receive the tax credit for a determined period.
Glick understood solar proposals had been submitted to the board’s finance and facilities committees for consideration, but it appeared to him that nothing concrete came from it.
“That’s when I started thinking the board was dragging its feet on the deadline,” Glick said. “I was at a recent board meeting, there were reports about other infrastructure expenses, air conditioning and windows, but nothing said about solar proposals. That really disturbed us and still does.”
While fasting, he said he is looking forward to speaking with Bloomfield High School students.
“We’ve reached out to them and there’s a lot of support for renewable energy,” he said. “It’s their world that’s in such jeopardy. The trend to renewables is clear. It’s the direction.”
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