Weeks after fifth-generation Arizona rancher Casey Murph raised the alarm about a foreign solar company trying to access his family’s grazing allotment, he met with representatives from the Arizona State Land Department.

He had first heard from Orsted, the European company interested in building a solar project on his land, when they asked to get through one of his locked gates. State officials told him the company has enormous power.

“Orsted has the full resources of the nation of Denmark, money is not an object,” Murph says. “If they want access and have all the time in the world to get it, they can just pay off whoever adjoins the site and get access.”

He criticizes Arizona’s government for being overly accommodating to them.

“Seems to me that the state is bending over backwards to allow these solar conglomerates all the leeway in the world to get everything lined up to get the project approved,” he says, “But no one is bending over backwards to help the rancher stay in business.”

It turns out these developers may not have discovered Casey Murph by chance. They were invited, and local officials laid out the welcome mat.

County records and corporate filings reviewed by UNWON suggest a nonprofit operating out of Navajo County offices, and led by county officials, used public resources to recruit international developers to build their wind and solar installations in Arizona ranch country.

On paper, REAL AZ no longer exists.

Selling Arizona ranch country to the world

Business filings show REAL AZ shut down on October 17, 2024. But its website is still active, and county financial records reviewed by UNWON indicate REAL AZ continues to receive membership dues from the very companies whose projects it solicits.

According to community researchers, virtually all private corporate donors to REAL AZ have ties to active renewable energy projects in Navajo and Apache Counties.

The REAL AZ board includes multiple county officials, including Navajo County District III Supervisor Jason Whiting, who serves as chairman. Elected to represent a community divided over wind and solar projects, he appears to lead a nonprofit that actively solicits them.

On July 28, 2025, REAL AZ paid the Financial Times of London $25,000. The expense is logged as “Financial Times NO UT – Real AZ FDI Strategies.” FDI stands for Foreign Direct Investment.

If this was for an ad, it wasn’t designed to be seen by local entrepreneurs; it invited the global investment community to take advantage of Arizona’s heavy tax subsidies and wide open spaces for sprawling energy projects. REAL AZ was marketing northeastern Arizona to the world’s money.

But by that point, REAL AZ had been officially dissolved for nine months.

Jason Whiting signed the dissolution paperwork himself.

Local leaders play double duty

In a November 2025 promo video for REAL AZ, Whiting describes the group’s purpose.

“We’re about helping business come into the area and providing jobs and opportunity,” he said.

In 2013, REAL AZ Development Council, Inc. was incorporated with a Holbrook address: 100 East Code Talkers Drive, the Navajo County Administrative Building. Whiting became President and Director on January 28, 2015, according to Arizona Corporation Commission records.

That version of REAL AZ was administratively dissolved for failure to maintain a statutory agent. It was reinstated in June 2017, then dissolved again, for the same reason, in March 2018. This time it stayed closed.

In 2022, Whiting signed articles of incorporation for a new entity: REAL AZ Economic Development Group Inc., also located at 100 East Code Talkers Drive. He is named as incorporator.

REAL AZ collects membership dues from renewable energy companies. As supervisor, Whiting then votes on whether to approve their projects in Navajo County.

REAL AZ chairman positioned to vote on wind & solar projects supported by member companies

On April 28, the Navajo County Board of Supervisors voted to approve West Camp Wind Farm II, LLC, a 500-megawatt AES Corporation wind project—up to 144 turbines stretching over more than 50,000 acres.

AES has been paying dues to REAL AZ since September 2022, says community researcher Kelly Meixler. County financial records show AES made its last recorded payment to REAL AZ in September 2025, eleven months after REAL AZ was dissolved.

Many residents who attended public listening sessions opposed the wind project. As one community member put it on X: “They listened. Then they ignored us.”

County manager Bryan Layton told the board the project was a legal and lawful use of private property.

No one mentioned that the developer asking the board for approval had been writing checks to a dissolved nonprofit run by a supervisor poised to vote, and that county money had paid to recruit such developers to the region in the first place.

A public records request to the county’s Planning Department turned up zero records on water use, dust control, or water quality studies for West Camp Wind Farm II.

The board approved it anyway.

Marketing campaign invites the world to the White Mountains

REAL AZ distributes podcast episodes and videos urging green energy companies all over the world to set up shop in rural Arizona.

The podcast is voiced by an anonymous female host—it sounds AI generated. The county ledger shows a ChatGPT subscription billed to REAL AZ’s fund.

“A region that actually has room to breathe, a place that was practically built from the ground up with business in mind; well that’s Real Arizona,” an episode from February 2026 states. “It’s this economic corridor up in the northeastern part of the state and it’s quickly becoming a very powerful alternative.”

The host goes on to “break down” what makes the region “so interesting” for renewables, listing sunshine, big stretches of “affordable land,” and connectivity to the power grid as natural advantages for developers looking to establish “huge, successful energy projects.”

She invites entrepreneurs to come fill in “gaps in the supply chain.”

“The big developers are on their way, and they’re gonna need everything from transformers and panel frames to cranes and earth movers,” she says. “This is a true ground floor opportunity.”

The podcast tells business owners that what makes this zone—“Real Arizona”—particularly attractive is its lax regulatory environment.

The Navajo County board reshaped its zoning rules in June 2025, according to reporting by the White Mountain Independent. Meixler says ordinances were weakened to fast track wind and solar projects.

Renewable companies pay dues to REAL AZ

Whiting is not the only county official at REAL AZ. Rochelle Lacapa, Navajo County’s Government Relations Director, is named in the original 2022 articles of incorporation as executive director and founding statutory agent. She remained CEO of record until 2023, when she was replaced by Chris Pasterz, Economic Development Director for Navajo County. Pasterz used his county email address as the organization’s contact of record. Hunter Moore also serves as a board member. According to his REAL AZ bio, he previously served as an executive staff member for Navajo County. Another board member, Preston Raban, is the Economic Development Director for Apache County.

Whiting, Lacapa, Pasterz, Moore, and Raban did not respond to requests for comment. But in a Navajo County board meeting in March, Whiting denied any conflict of interest.

“I don't receive any money,” Whiting told the board. “I don't get paid, I don't get any money, nor have I, from Real AZ. So that's not a conflict of interest.”

Arizona Public Service (APS) is the largest energy utility in the state and is state-regulated. APS transferred $600,000 to REAL AZ in February 2022, according to reporting by the White Mountain Independent, over two months before Articles of Incorporation were filed. APS Division Manager Neil Traver then joined REAL AZ’s executive board. APS is required to meet green energy mandates set by the state, and purchases power from these solar and wind projects.

APS spokeswoman Marijka Bastrmajian Cooley provided the following statement:

Dissolved on paper, open for business

The official Navajo County ledger shows REAL AZ has pulled in about $1 million. Virtually every major renewable energy developer with projects in the area is listed on its website as a member, including AES Corporation, BluEarth Renewables, EDF Renewables, Apex Clean Energy, Clearway Energy, SB Energy, Primergy Solar, Invenergy, RAI Energy, and Repsol.

State law bars dissolved nonprofits from soliciting funds or doing business. In the formal dissolution paperwork REAL AZ signed in 2024, there’s a tax clearance question to determine whether an organization requires a Certificate of Compliance from the Arizona Department of Revenue before dissolving. REAL AZ claimed no such certification was needed, stating the organization had “not commenced activities, does not have members.”

Yet the county’s own financial ledgers show that after shutting down, REAL AZ collected income, contracted with vendors, and maintained an active dues-paying membership that included renewable energy developers, often while their projects moved through county approvals. In the ledger, such payments from governments and businesses are labeled “Real AZ membership” and “Real AZ dues.”

Months after it claimed to cease operations, REAL AZ also signed a nondisclosure agreement with Primergy Solar, a California solar developer. The NDA, dated June 15, 2025 and reviewed by UNWON, was signed by Pasterz. The document established confidentiality in negotiations involving solar and storage projects. The notice address listed for REAL AZ is the Navajo County government building.

Ten days later, county financial records show REAL AZ received a $2,500 payment recorded under “Sunshine Land & Wire LLC – Primergy Solar.”

Dissolving the nonprofit while continuing operations informally through county staff and county resources would eliminate REAL AZ’s legal obligation to file annual reports and financial disclosures with the state.

At a March 24, 2026 Board of Supervisors meeting, Pasterz claimed the decision to dissolve was deliberate. In a slideshow presentation, apparently a response to growing community concern, Pasterz told the board that beginning in October 2024—the same month the dissolution was filed—REAL AZ evaluated “what the best vehicle was” for the nonprofit and decided to continue as “an informal economic development group” functioning “as a program under Navajo County Economic Development.”

During the ensuing public comment period, community member Donna Shurwin pointed out an apparent inconsistency: Navajo County pays membership dues to REAL AZ.

“I'm sorry, but I thought REAL AZ was economic development for Navajo County?” she said. “The convolution creates distrust.”

Residents also questioned whether REAL AZ was really creating local jobs.

“We don’t want to bring jobs for employees out of Dallas,” said Steve Carvajal. “We don’t want to bring jobs, temporary jobs for employees out of Minnesota. We want employment for the people here.”

Others said the nonprofit is not even spending its resources within the community.

“They spent only 2.2% of that money on actual goods and services inside the county,” said Celia Laughlin. “This was not economic development. It looks more like a pay-to-play.”

Generational ranchers displaced

Casey Murph has heard from the federal government. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins called him personally and promised to help.

“We have your back,” she posted on X.

Solar and wind encroachment on rangeland has become an increasing concern. It’s uniquely threatening to Arizona’s ranching industry because here, most ranchers rely on grazing leases.

“Arizona, as a lot of people know, has little private land,” Murph says. “And due to the climate, it takes a lot of land in order to run enough cows to have a sustainable operation. So almost all Arizona ranchers rely on either a state or federal lease allotment.”

He says if he loses the allotment in question, he’ll lose his cattle business.

“Without the state allotment lands, our operation would not have enough acreage to run enough cows to pay our private land taxes and maintenance costs.”

The Arizona State Land Department released a statement on May 28 in response to the uproar.

“To be clear, ASLD has no policy prioritizing solar over any other use,” it read in part. “The proposed Orsted solar project is in the very early stages of evaluation as ASLD and the applicant works through the due diligence process.”

The department emphasized its commitment to collaborating with ranchers: “Arizona’s history is deeply tied to ranching. Families came west, raised cattle, managed the land, and helped build the communities that define rural Arizona today.”

But this doesn’t jibe with the government’s actions, Murph says.

“If the solar company has no access, that should be an automatic rejection of the application, and that’s that, so a man like me can move on and have peace.”

If the state has been actively soliciting these developers to ranchland like Murph’s, he considers it a betrayal.

“They don’t care what we want.”

Some say the culture of silence is its own tradition here in the White Mountains. This is where Butch Cassidy was last seen, by some accounts, and where the Wild Bunch gang rode, evading justice on the Outlaw Trail. Families here knew to keep fresh horses in the barn, and to look the other way.

Kelly Meixler, a local business owner turned community organizer, started looking into the companies behind a rush of new wind and solar projects in the region. She was concerned about foreign involvement in the power grid. Her research uncovered potential conflicts of interest closer to home.

Arizona offers an 80% property tax valuation reduction for wind and solar projects. Counties like Navajo County get a fraction of the tax revenue while carrying the costs of road damage, emergency services, and loss of local ranchland, wildlife habitat, and viewshed. And Meixler says these projects drop home and ranch values by 30-50%.

She argues more study is needed before large-scale energy projects are constructed across northeastern Arizona, where the geology is fragile and complex, with extensive volcanic features and a history of underground activity. She worries about the wildlife, the viewshed, the water. Nearby in New Mexico, local legend says that when the railroad was put in, a spring caved in on itself. What about hundreds of 600-700 foot wind turbines? Long after the corporations move on, her community will be left with the fallout. And once the ranchers are forced out of business, that deep knowledge and unwavering dedication to this unique and rugged place will be lost forever.

In a meeting with Jason Whiting, when Meixler heard him describe how powerless he felt when locals came to him crying, begging him to do something about these invasive renewables projects, she believed he was lying.

“He said there’s nothing he can do about it,” Meixler says. “But he was the director of REAL AZ. He was actively recruiting these developers the whole time.”

She’s among a group that has organized to oppose the REAL AZ agenda. Her Substack breaks down everything she’s uncovered.

Community listening sessions on wind turbine projects paint a clear picture: by Meixler’s estimate, 80% of attendees oppose the installations.

“Our officials are working on behalf of all these foreign companies,” she says. “Those ‘community listening sessions’ are just to check a box. They don’t care what we want.”

Some have filed complaints with the state attorney general alleging violations of multiple state laws—A.R.S. §§ 10-3804 and 10-3805, which bar dissolved nonprofits from operating; A.R.S. § 38-503, which prohibits public officials from using their positions to benefit organizations in which they have a substantial interest, and A.R.S. § 35-212, which prohibits illegal expenditure of public funds.

The Arizona attorney general’s communications director Ritchie Taylor said his office “can’t comment on or confirm any potential investigations.”

Murph waits for news

Leigh Ann O’Neill, chief legal affairs officer for America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a D.C. based think tank, says Murph is emblematic of threats on ranching from big money-backed green developers across the nation.

“Our work supporting Casey as he navigates these threats has been eye-opening,” O’Neill says. “While he’s fighting for his livelihood, state officials bend over backward to accommodate a foreign solar conglomerate backed by the resources of the Danish government. This is David versus Goliath: a multibillion-dollar overseas corporation is being given every opportunity, while the rancher who has stewarded this land for generations is treated as an obstacle. Arizona should be protecting its ranchers, not chasing profits for foreign solar developers.”

She says AFPI is assisting Casey “in advocating for his interests as an Arizona taxpayer and generational rancher by providing him and the public with educational material on energy and rural America policy.”

As for Murph, his meeting with state officials this week didn’t bring him peace.

“I was told basically, ‘You have nothing to worry about until you have something to worry about,’” he says.

His family waits to learn their future, and whether their ranch will make it to a sixth generation of stewardship in northeast Arizona.

“We remain in the same place we have been since 2022,” he says, “Wondering if or when they will shut us down.”

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has responded to a congressional investigation launched by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) into the USDA’s efforts to stop proposed dam removals in Northern California.

Last month, Rollins announced that a buyer has expressed interest in the Potter Valley Project, an orphaned hydroelectric system that delivers water to 750,000 residents, largely in Huffman’s district. PG&E, the project’s owner, has decided not to renew its hydroelectric license and has asked the federal government for permission to tear down Scott Dam and Cape Horn Dam.

Huffman, who is the ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, then opened an investigation into the USDA’s involvement.

“The involvement by these federal agencies, the District, and perhaps others in a scheme to take over the PVP and to ‘restart/expand’ its defunct hydropower operations revives a long and contentious history,” Huffman wrote. “Accordingly, my constituents and I are acutely interested in all of the details surrounding your efforts relative to a potential purchase or acquisition of the PVP and any plans or proposals to operate the project for the benefit of the District and perhaps others far from the Eel and Russian River basins.”

In her response, Rollins outlined the federal government’s interest in preserving the project and its ongoing ability to serve North Coast residents.

“The Federal government has a clear interest in ensuring that any potential buyer is given serious consideration by PG&E when it could ultimately keep important water and energy infrastructure, serving hundreds of thousands of people, in place,” Rollins wrote.

Her letter is included in full below.

Secretary Brooke L. Rollins
Washington, D.C. 20250

May 29, 2026

THE HONORABLE JARED HUFFMAN
Ranking Member Natural Resources Committee
United States House of Representatives
2330 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Ranking Member Huffman,

Thank you for your April 28, 2026, letter regarding the Potter Valley Hydroelectric Project in California which is owned by Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). The Trump Administration remains deeply concerned about the profoundly negative and irreversible impact that the proposed decommissioning of the Scott and Cape Horn Dams will have on the area’s rich agricultural heritage, local communities, and the estimated 750,000 residents whose survival depends on a stable water supply – things that will be lost if the dams are ultimately removed.

For over a hundred years, legacy farmers in Potter Valley and surrounding counties have put water from the Eel River Basin to beneficial use after first using it to generate electricity. This has been a symbiotic relationship among farmers, power generators, and the environment. Unfortunately, under the radical leadership of the State of California, the needs of fish have been prioritized over the needs of the farmers and ranchers who feed our nation and the rural communities and businesses that need water access to survive. It is gravely concerning that our Nation’s largest food producing State has chosen special interests at the expense of its farmers, ranchers, and communities; the State’s continued effort to remove important water infrastructure compromises California’s resilience to drought, wildfires, and extreme weather.

The President’s Administration is committed to good governance and evidence-based decision making, rejecting the kind of rigid ideological policies that threaten real harm on California communities. When President Trump signed Executive Order 14213, Establishing the National Energy Dominance Council, and Executive Order 14154, Unleashing American Energy, he affirmed his commitment to expand all forms of reliable and affordable energy production. Importantly, this Administration recognizes ideologically driven actions have impeded the generation of reliable and affordable electricity inflicting high energy costs upon rate payers. Fifteen to twenty percent of California’s State generated energy portfolio is hydropower. High hydropower utilization improves reliability and reduces blackout risk, especially in drought years. Reducing California’s electricity reliability at the expense of ratepayers further stresses the State’s fragile electrical grid and energy affordability for all Californians. The estimated cost of removing the Potter Valley Project is between $500 million and $1 billion – likely to be borne by PG&E rate payers and to the detriment of any person who currently enjoys water supply from the project.

According to the most recent census of agriculture, the counties of Lake, Mendocino, Sonoma, Humboldt, and Marin have a combined total of over $1.4 billion in sales of agricultural products. That is well over $4.2 billion in broader economic activity based on a regional typical multiplier of $3 to $1. Economic activity will be lost if water access is eliminated. Furthermore, eliminating these dams will degrade water quality and drinking water safety for downstream communities, farms, and ecosystems. It will diminish the capacity for wildland firefighting in one of the most fire-prone regions of the country. It endangers groundwater wells and grazing allotments, eliminates key recreation resources, and places at risk hundreds of millions of dollars in USDA-backed loans, crop insurance programs, conservation investments, and rural development projects. There are also few, if any, environmental benefits to be gained from the removal of the project, considering the dams have been in place for over 100 years and currently benefit protected watersheds with cold water releases.

Wildfire is of significant concern due to the history of devastation in this region. Lake Pillsbury provides a crucial water supply needed for fighting major forest fires in the area, and is a critical and life-saving asset that was used extensively to combat three of the largest wildfires in State history – the 2017 Sonoma Complex Fire, the 2018 Mendocino Complex Fire, and the 2020 August Complex Fire. The 2017 Sonoma Complex fires alone were the most destructive in State history at the time, with over 110,000 acres destroyed, $9 billion in insured losses, and significant loss of life all within the service area of the Potter Valley Project. This alone warrants thorough examination of the surrender of the system and any proposed alternatives. Additional information related specifically to the utilization of the Potter Valley Projects as relates to wildland fire fighting and U.S. Forest Service assets in the area can be found in the intervention submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) by USDA.

PG&E frequently touts its commitment to operating cost savings and improved resilience for 16 million rate payers across California. This underscores the organization’s fiduciary responsibility to its ratepayers to pursue strategies that reduce costs while providing reliable energy. In this context, engaging with a prospective buyer for the Potter Valley Hydroelectric Project represents a prudent avenue for transferring assets that may no longer align with PG&E’s long-term objectives. It could also serve the best interests of customers by mitigating the substantial financial liabilities associated with dam removal – costs that could reach upward of a billion dollars.

The ongoing push for full removal of the Potter Valley Project stands in direct contrast to the California Legislature and Governor Newsom’s statewide commitment to adding nine million acre feet of new water supply by 2040, as it would eliminate critical storage and diversion infrastructure at a time when California urgently needs every available tool to bolster reliable water supplies for agriculture, communities, and ecosystems.

The Administration will entertain the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District and any other legitimate party expressing interest in purchasing the Potter Valley Project and operating it in a manner consistent with what agricultural producers and communities have relied upon over the last century. Keeping the infrastructure in place and restarting hydroelectric generation has the potential to advance the President’s energy dominance agenda and will undoubtedly secure the water supply needs of the hundreds of thousands of citizens in rural California who currently use the water diversions.

There are many outstanding questions and considerations surrounding the proposed surrender and decommissioning of the Potter Valley Project. For a detailed examination of these concerns, please refer to the formal interventions submitted to FERC by the Department of the Interior and USDA.

A government by the people should be for the people. The Federal government has a clear interest in ensuring that any potential buyer is given serious consideration by PG&E when it could ultimately keep important water and energy infrastructure, serving hundreds of thousands of people, in place.

If you have any questions, please have a member of your staff contact the Office of Congressional Relations at (202) 720-7095 or ocr@usda.gov.

Sincerely,

Brooke L. Rollins
Secretary
U.S. Department of Agriculture

Nicolette Hahn Niman has one of the more unusual biographies in American public life: environmental lawyer, former vegetarian, cattle rancher, Nobel Week speaker, author of Defending Beef, Point Reyes Seashore resident, and now, a congressional candidate challenging seven-term incumbent Jared Huffman in California’s newly redrawn District 2.

She’s also one of two ranching families still standing at Point Reyes after 11 ranching families were forced out in a secretive Biden-era deal brokered by the Nature Conservancy and wrapped in non-disclosure agreements—a deal Huffman reportedly helped engineer and was bound by NDA himself. The Nimans did not participate in the negotiations. Then they sued to protect ranching on the peninsula.

What made her run wasn’t just Point Reyes. It was a pattern: the oyster farm that came first, the ranchers who came second, now the local fishermen targeted. It was watching Jared Huffman, who came out of the NRDC, operate for 13 years with what she calls an “absolutist environmentalism” that treats every fisherman, rancher, logger, and farmer in the district as a problem to be managed rather than a constituent to be served. And it was Proposition 50: a Newsom-backed gerrymander that added Shasta, Modoc, and Siskiyou Counties to Huffman’s district, making it, as Nicolette puts it, ground zero for America’s rural-urban divide.

Keely has been covering two of the biggest stories in Nicolette’s world: the Point Reyes forced departure and the Potter Valley Project, both of which fall inside Huffman’s district, both of which she weighs in on. They talk about the closed-door NDA process that resulted in the displacement of 200 people and 30 schoolchildren. They talk about what she’s heard on the campaign trail from Shasta to Siskiyou. They talk about the Klamath parallel, Secretary Rollins, and why she’d like to see the Potter Valley Dams stay. And they cover about what it would mean to have someone in Congress who literally wrote the book on defending the beef industry.

Show Notes

Sponsored by Ranch Vision: www.ranchvision.io

Special thanks to Josh Woolwine for creating our intro. Follow Josh at www.instagram.com/hjwoolwine.

Gavin Newsom has never once met with California’s 58 sheriffs.

Not a sit-down. Not a representative sent on his behalf. Not a returned phone call. Every governor before him had a standing relationship with the men and women running law enforcement in the state. Newsom ended it the day he took office; rural California has been paying the price ever since.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco is running for Governor of California. He’s not a politician, he describes his campaign as a citizen’s rebellion. But he has been elected to run the fourth largest sheriff’s office in the country for over seven years. He’s spent the last year driving the length of California talking to talking to the people who grow its food, fight its fires, and manage its land. He’s met with farmers, ranchers, loggers, and water district managers. He knows where the Scott Dam is. He knows what the Potter Valley Project means to 750,000 people. He’s tracked Chinese and Mexican cartels through California’s forests. He’s watched Gavin Newsom refuse to return a single call from California’s sheriffs.

In this conversation, he goes deep on the issues that actually affect working Californians, the ones Sacramento pretends don’t exist:

Water. Why the last major reservoir built in California was 1979 (we’ve doubled in population since then), why the state keeps routing water to the ocean instead of storing it, and what the Scott Dam removal would actually mean for the North State.

Fire. Why the Palisades Fire wiped out 20 years of California’s carbon reduction in a single event, why prescribed burns take two to three years to permit, and why bringing back the logging industry is essential.

Illegal cannabis and cartels. How legalization created a more dangerous black market, what Chinese, Russian, and Mexican criminal organizations are doing in California’s forests, and why Sacramento takes credit for enforcement it didn’t do.

Agriculture. Why California has lost nearly a quarter of its farms since 1982 and up to 900,000 acres of San Joaquin Valley farmland may be taken out of production due to water policy, why small farmers are being regulated into selling to big ag, and what it would take to reverse this dismaying trend.

Law enforcement and Newsom. The standing relationship between governors and sheriffs that Newsom destroyed, and why Jerry Brown warned them on his way out: “You have no idea what’s coming.”

Predator policy. Wolves, mountain lions, grizzly reintroduction proposals, whether he’d delist the gray wolf, and what Fish & Game has gotten completely wrong

CCW and Second Amendment. Why access to concealed carry permits varies wildly by county and what that means for rural Californians who are 45 minutes from the nearest deputy.

Energy. CPUC corruption, why he says utility rates would be cut in half the day he takes office, and the case for nuclear.

Bianco grew up in a small coal mining and farming town in Utah, came to California at 21 because it was the most perfect place he’d ever seen, and has watched it be systematically dismantled in the time he’s been here. He’s not running because he woke up one day and wanted to be governor. He’s running because he looked at the field, looked at the state, and decided someone had to.

This conversation is for the farmers in the Central Valley watching their fields go dry. For the ranchers in Modoc choosing between their cattle and the law. For the loggers in Humboldt who watched their industry get regulated into extinction. For everyone who’s looked at a ballot and wondered if it’s even worth filling out anymore.

Show Notes

Sponsored by Ranch Vision: www.ranchvision.io

Special thanks to Josh Woolwine for creating our intro. Follow Josh at www.instagram.com/hjwoolwine.

UPDATE (1:00 PM Tuesday): Shifting winds are threatening the historic ranch buildings on the north part of the island. Tankers appear focused on protecting Park Service headquarters, campgrounds, and possibly the historic buildings. The ranch house is thought to b…

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Justin Pettit is a third-generation cattle rancher in Bakersfield, California, where the West has never quite been won. Nine years ago, he developed a novel premium beef product. His carrot-finished beef was soon in demand among customers seeking a prime-graded grass-finished option as well as high-end restaurants and culinary programs across the country.

After surviving COVID in Gavin Newsom’s California, Pettit says a massive meat processor based in Southern California cheated him and his customers by cutting his product with foreign beef. Once he caught the alleged fraud, he says he tried to catch up on orders, but it was too late. He lost customers and business, a 10,000-acre ranch lease, and soon his home. Now he’s embroiled in an unresolved lawsuit with a meat industry behemoth in a microcosm of the stakes ranchers and farmers face.

Between fighting wildland fires, founding a non-profit for kids with special needs, driving a horse trailer full of food through the L.A. fires to feed evacuees, smuggling beef to restaurants during COVID, dealing with train robbers and cartel neighbors, and trying to create a new product in an industry as old as the American frontier, Justin is living a modern cowboy adventure in the unwon West. His story offers insight into the stakes facing modern ranchers and reveals the cracks in a food system increasingly unfriendly to on-the-ground producers. Justin believes he’s fighting for the industry itself; if and when he wins, it will be a win for the industry, proving you can still create something new and find success in cowboy country.

Show Notes

Sponsored by Ranch Vision: www.ranchvision.io

Special thanks to Josh Woolwine for creating our intro. Follow Josh at www.instagram.com/hjwoolwine.

Links

Website: https://www.santacarotabeef.com

GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-save-our-family-ranch-business

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/santacarotabeef/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SantaCarotaBeef

X: https://x.com/santacarotabeef

Casey Murph has warned the ranching community for years about the threat of renewable energy projects taking over Western rangeland. Now, he may be big solar’s latest victim.

A foreign green energy corporation…

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His investiga…

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Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins made the announcement on her X account, posting a photo of her…

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Darcy Burke is vice president of the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District and a longtime California water professional. She was also featured in the tweet heard around Lake, Mendocino, and Sonoma counties on Monday, when USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins announced a potential buyer has emerged for the Potter Valley Project.

Darcy joins me today to talk about why her board is interested in purchasing two dams in Potter Valley, California local politicians and corporations have assured us for years no one wants.

Just what exactly is the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District? Why are they interested in purchasing this hydropower project? And most importantly: Do they plan on somehow defying the laws of physics and geography to steal Northern California’s water?

No questions were off limits for this important conversation about the future of water in Northern California and how one rural community’s bipartisan, out-of-the-box effort to save their water, their future, and their way of life against tremendous odds sparked a unified California stand against the machine.

Read previous coverage of the Potter Valley dam removals here.

Show Notes

Sponsored by Ranch Vision: www.ranchvision.io

Special thanks to Josh Woolwine for creating our intro. Follow Josh at www.instagram.com/hjwoolwine.

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A Southern California water district has come forward as a potential last-minute buyer of the Potter Valley Project, a century-old Northern California hydropower system slated for demolition, in a development that could…

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America’s farmland is being destroyed in the name of green energy. Alexandra Fasulo is doing something about it.

Alex is an influencer, entrepreneur, first generation farmer, and accidental activist. Not long after buying a farm in her home state of New York, a neighbor told her about a foreign-owned company that had approached him six times, offering well above market value to lease his hayfield for a solar complex. Her curiosity piqued, she attended a local hearing on a solar protection ordinance. A lobbyist from California confronted her in the parking lot. What was really going on here? Why were foreign-owned companies approaching farmers in upstate New York? Why were Santa Monica lobbyists flying to her tiny village to protest local laws? Those questions led Alex on a path to who she is today: A leading voice in the fight against unchecked industrial expansion of renewable energy projects on America’s working landscapes.

From freelance writer to first-generation farmer to grassroots advocate, Alex’s story is about what happens when a corporation comes for your farm town and no one in power picks up the phone. Learn about the rural communities being erased by wind, solar, data center, and battery storage; the impact of foreign corporations and captured state agencies on America’s food production, nature, and wildlife; and how to save your own corner of the country. We talk about the importance of local engagement and the fight to save America’s small town soul.

Meet Alexandra Fasulo (0:00)
Big Solar Comes to Upstate New York (1:06)
One Town Board vs. a Santa Monica Lobbyist (4:28)
The Wildlife Management Area They Want to Bury in Panels (10:18)
The Redacted Files: When the State Hides the Science (19:24)
Foreign Corporations and ORES (39:57)
The American Land Rescue Fund: Legal War Chest for Farmers (48:02)
From Freelance Fairy to First-Gen Farmer (61:58)
What to Do If a Solar Company Calls You (74:24)
The Fight Is Not Over (81:55)

Follow Alexandra Fasulo on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Substack. Support her legal fight at American Land Rescue Fund.

Show Notes

Sponsored by Ranch Vision: www.ranchvision.io

Special thanks to Josh Woolwine for creating our intro. Follow Josh at www.instagram.com/hjwoolwine.

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Today, Dr. Rich Brazil and Grace Brazil join Keely for a discussion on the future of the U.S. cattle herd, which currently sits at a 75-year low even as consumer demand for beef skyrockets.

Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. recently made waves with his comments asking ranchers to stop selling cattle and to help rebuild the domestic beef herd. Is this easier said than done? The group discusses. We also talk about how the Trump administration is helping create more demand for beef in the market and more opportunity for beef producers.

Dr. Brazil shows how ranchers can use Ranch Vision to examine growth strategies on their unique operations. Consumers will hear a nitty-gritty discussion about the business of ranching, and hear how ranchers manage their beef, the kinds of questions they have to ask when making big decisions for the future, and what creating a ranch business strategy looks like on the ground.

Then we wrap up with a myth about the industry debunked and a ranch vet story from Dr. Brazil’s archives!

Join us on the next Ranch Beat to hear the truth about the beef industry and insights into Western and rural America you won’t hear anywhere else.

Show Notes

Tutorial on using Ranch Vision to plan a herd growth strategy:

Follow Dr. Rich Brazil on Instagram at www.instagram.com/drbrazildvm and Facebook at www.facebook.com/DocBrazilDVM.

Follow Grace Brazil on Instagram at www.instagram.com/grace_brazil.

Special thanks to Josh Woolwine for creating our intro. Follow Josh at www.instagram.com/hjwoolwine.

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Vogler is unable to speak about hi…

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