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Article and photo by Luci Weldon, Warren Record assistant editor and photographer.
Above WR Photo: Deborah Ferruccio asks zoning consultant Jake Petrosky if he’s ever seen outright regulatory exemptions (a green light) for high impact polluters. Ken Ferruccio watches on as Petrosky admits he has not.
WR article and letter refer to Scott Murray, Roanoke River Basin Association Upper Reach Program Director whose leadership has been invaluable in educating the people and public officials on actual negative impacts of industrial-scale solar. _________________________________________________________________________________________________
In this episode, Deborah and Ken explain why they haven't podcasted for over seven months as they pivoted from their work as podcast historians back once again to researchers, educators and community activists.
The issues they and other Warren County citizens have been facing are age-old ones over land use, the rights of landowners, and in this case, the power of mega corporations to try to position themselves to profit from what industries call “solar electric gold.”
Through coverage in the Warren Record, this episode follows the citizens’ “Close the Door to Horizon and Industrial-Scale Solar” campaign.
As the county government moves to consolidate all its land use ordinances into one Unified Ordinance, intensive lobbying efforts to lift solar regulations are unloosed by Horizon Solar, a subsidiary of a $15 trillion international conglomerate.
The plan is to convince commissioners to lift current size and spacing solar restrictions so that Horizon can build two 450-acre mega solar facilities that will be equivalent to 1,080 football fields!
The prospect that commissioners might open the regulatory door to utility-scale power so that thousands of acres of football-field-sized solar installations could be built, end-to-end along the electric grid, does not sit well with the majority of Warren County citizens who favor protecting and furthering the county’s agricultural, timber, recreational, housing, and tourism economies, as well as supporting community-scale solar.
Citizens also know the mega-scale solar land grab is possibly positioning the county for solar-powered hyper-scale AI data centers.
The public’s sentiment is informed and fierce, and Warren Record coverage shows the people are relentless.
The way Ken puts it to zoning officials, “Here in a birthplace of environmental justice, the people lead.”
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By Deborah and Ken FerruccioSend a text
Article and photo by Luci Weldon, Warren Record assistant editor and photographer.
Above WR Photo: Deborah Ferruccio asks zoning consultant Jake Petrosky if he’s ever seen outright regulatory exemptions (a green light) for high impact polluters. Ken Ferruccio watches on as Petrosky admits he has not.
WR article and letter refer to Scott Murray, Roanoke River Basin Association Upper Reach Program Director whose leadership has been invaluable in educating the people and public officials on actual negative impacts of industrial-scale solar. _________________________________________________________________________________________________
In this episode, Deborah and Ken explain why they haven't podcasted for over seven months as they pivoted from their work as podcast historians back once again to researchers, educators and community activists.
The issues they and other Warren County citizens have been facing are age-old ones over land use, the rights of landowners, and in this case, the power of mega corporations to try to position themselves to profit from what industries call “solar electric gold.”
Through coverage in the Warren Record, this episode follows the citizens’ “Close the Door to Horizon and Industrial-Scale Solar” campaign.
As the county government moves to consolidate all its land use ordinances into one Unified Ordinance, intensive lobbying efforts to lift solar regulations are unloosed by Horizon Solar, a subsidiary of a $15 trillion international conglomerate.
The plan is to convince commissioners to lift current size and spacing solar restrictions so that Horizon can build two 450-acre mega solar facilities that will be equivalent to 1,080 football fields!
The prospect that commissioners might open the regulatory door to utility-scale power so that thousands of acres of football-field-sized solar installations could be built, end-to-end along the electric grid, does not sit well with the majority of Warren County citizens who favor protecting and furthering the county’s agricultural, timber, recreational, housing, and tourism economies, as well as supporting community-scale solar.
Citizens also know the mega-scale solar land grab is possibly positioning the county for solar-powered hyper-scale AI data centers.
The public’s sentiment is informed and fierce, and Warren Record coverage shows the people are relentless.
The way Ken puts it to zoning officials, “Here in a birthplace of environmental justice, the people lead.”