July 20, 2017
Letters, North Carolina

Energy companies don’t care about rural America

Letter: Energy companies don’t care about rural America | The Citizen-Times | July 19, 2017 | www.citizen-times.com

Huge international renewable energy developers don’t care a whit about destroying thousands of acres of farmland in rural North Carolina.

Rural areas are often the target of environmental big bullies because they don’t have the resources or press coverage to resist the invasion. Iberdrola of Spain built a wind farm near Elizabeth City with 104 wind turbines on 2,513 acres. Invenergy of Spain wants a 600-acre solar farm of 288,120 panels in rural Beaufort County.

These companies only care about the 35 percent state tax credit and 30 percent federal tax credit. They don’t care about the ugly blight on the landscape, or that solar panels contain cadmium and the batteries contain lead. They don’t care about the noise pollution of thwopping windmills (see the documentary “Windfall”).

All they care about is how quickly they can lay the concrete bases and get the 10-feet-tall solar panels or 328-feet-tall wind turbines installed.

What will become of these monstrosities in 10 years? Who cares!

Besides, wind and solar still require electricity and power lines to augment and distribute their product. It’s time to stand up for our rural communities, and put a stop to all this!

Janice Parker, Hendersonville


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2017/07/20/energy-companies-dont-care-about-rural-america/