Dear Editor:
I have reached the conclusion that the primary beneficiaries of Page County’s implementation of a solar farm industry are a few landowners, Urban Grid Holdings and affiliates, Dominion Energy, attorneys, and
global corporations such as Amazon who will be the end recipients of electricity produced by any utility-sized solar farms.
So we must ask ourselves, as citizens of Page County, what’s in it for us?
I understand that there are favorable tax offsets from current state and federal subsidies available to local governments that make solar energy production appealing to county governments. Would such benefits
result in equally favorable personal property tax reductions for Page County citizens?
I do favor solar energy be permitted for individual users on their own private property within the size and scope of what is required to replace or supplement other energy sources to supply electricity to individually owned private homes, local farms, and local industry within Page County. Such solar energy applications to produce electricity should be readily available to those Page County citizens who can afford all the required solar energy production costs for use on their own property for their own electrical requirements. That should be an individual’s personal decision supported by a Page County ordinance.
Beyond that, I see no personal advantage to the citizens of Page County for large-scale, utility-sized solar farms.
Please contemplate this quote from Thomas Jefferson: “I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled up upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe”.
I encourage fellow citizens to view the video of the Feb. 2 meeting of the Board of Supervisors and draw your own conclusions.
The solar farms discussion starts at the 10-min/30-sec point. When finished, I urge you to contact the applicable Board Member for your voting district and voice your opinion.
Remember to be cordial and disciplined with your opinion and keep in mind that we are all responsible for who sits on this board since we elected them. Also keep in mind that each of our six board members are paid a token amount of $5,500 a year, that total being $33,000. That sum is about half the $60,000 we have spent so far on solar project consultant fees to The Berkley Group.
When we don’t voice our opinions, government officials often inappropriately construe this as a lack of interest or apathy. They often forget or are simply aloof from the fact that our personal priorities are earning an income, balancing that income to pay bills, raising a family,
doing necessary household chores, going to school, taking care of others, spending some downtime with family, and constantly driving or dashing around everywhere to get it all done under enormous time
constraints.
It is equally important to realize that doing nothing is equivalent to accepting everything the government imposes on us.
Kenneth Chumley ~ Luray, Va.
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