Rural landscapes are under increasing development pressure from utility-scale solar (USS) energy facilities while public attitudes toward these facilities remain poorly documented and understood. This study explores whether opposition to USS in upstate New York is shaped at least in part by perceived rural burden—the idea that rural people and places are unfairly expected to provide new renewable energy in response to urban demand. We explore the idea of rural burden with measures of distributive injustice, procedural injustice, periphery identity, and place attachment. We use a survey (N = 421) of residents of western and northern New York, regions with substantial new and pending USS development. We find that 42 percent of residents oppose USS installations in or near their local communities, 14 percent neither support nor oppose, and 44 percent support. Perceived distributive and procedural injustice, along with place attachment have the strongest effect on opposition, while socio-demographic attributes, political ideology, and climate change beliefs were insignificant. These findings suggest that opposition to large scale renewable energy development exemplifies a rural environmental justice concern justified for many by the perceived legacy of exploitation in natural resource development.

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应对农村负担：理解纽约州北部对公用事业规模太阳能开发的反对☆

公用事业规模的太阳能 (USS) 能源设施使农村景观面临着越来越大的开发压力，而公众对这些设施的态度仍然缺乏记录和了解。这项研究探讨了纽约州北部对 USS 的反对是否至少部分是由于人们认为的农村负担——即农村人口和地方被不公平地期望提供新的可再生能源来满足城市需求的想法。我们通过分配不公正、程序不公正、边缘身份和地方依恋等指标来探讨农村负担的概念。我们使用一项调查（N= 421）纽约州西部和北部的居民，这些地区有大量新的和待开发的 USS 开发。我们发现，42% 的居民反对在当地社区或其附近安装 USS，14% 的居民既不支持也不反对，44% 的居民支持。感知到的分配和程序不公正以及地方依恋对反对派的影响最大，而社会人口特征、政治意识形态和气候变化信念则微不足道。这些发现表明，反对大规模可再生能源开发体现了对农村环境正义的担忧，许多人认为自然资源开发中的剥削遗留问题是合理的。