Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005. |
Bland gets proactive regarding wind energy
Credit: By BILL ARCHER, Bluefield Daily Telegraph, bdtonline.com 29 October 2010 ~~
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Translate: FROM English | TO English
BLAND, Va. – The Bland County, Va., board of supervisors took a proactive position on wind energy development earlier this week when the board approved a wind energy development ordinance.
“We just wanted to get out in front of the issue,” Henry Blessing, chairman of the board of supervisors said. “Bland County already has zoning, but we saw what happened in Tazewell County, and we didn’t want to address the situation that way.”
The Bland County Planning Commission conducted public hearings on the issue. “They heard pros and cons,” Blessing said. “Probably more cons than pros. At the supervisors’ meeting, we only heard from people in support of the ordinance.”
Bland County Administrator Eric Workman said the county tried to be “proactive rather than reactive” on the wind energy development.
“The board of supervisors has been discussing the issue for a couple of years,” Workman said. “I just got in on the tail end of the process.
“Bland County is an agricultural county, and the idea of wind energy may be different from what it is in other parts of the country,” Workman said. “Farmers in the county may want to use wind power to off-set their personal energy needs. The ordinance is designed to address the energy needs of an agricultural-based economy that may want to consider wind energy for personal use.”
Workman said that the ordinance and zoning provides the planning commission and supervisors some degree of oversight in the wind energy development process. “Keeping up with the tide of technology is part of being a responsible government,” he said.
Blessing said that the county doesn’t have any wind energy development companies waiting to go through the application process. “This is something we can do to get ready when the time comes,” Blessing said.
This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.
The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.
Wind Watch relies entirely on User Funding |
(via Stripe) |
(via Paypal) |
Share: