Permits were expedited for a California clean energy project. Were residents sidelined?

CANTUA CREEK, Calif. — The fallowed farmland — too dry, salty and barren to grow crops — stretches across a remote, sunbaked expanse crisscrossed by rutted dirt roads.

Soon, roughly 15 square miles of these retired agricultural fields in western Fresno County will hold one of the world’s largest solar and battery energy storage projects — a behemoth capable of powering some 850,000 homes for four hours.

The Darden Clean Energy Project, approved by the California Energy Commission in June, is the first development to be fast-tracked under a 2022 state law that allows large renewable energy projects to be reviewed and permitted without sign-off from county and municipal governments.

The Opt-In Certification Program, as it is called, is meant to sidestep the kind of local pushback that can