Scientific Ignorance Rules the Day in Batsh*t Crazy Town Rejecting Deadly Solar Panels
EDITOR’S NOTE: In Charlestown, the most common forms of alternative energy are gas-powered backup generators and wood stoves. Charlestown has effectively banned any and all devices that convert wind into electricity and is none too keen on other types of green energy. But it could be worse, as this article shows.
As the son of a scientist, I can’t even tell you what it does
to me to have to write this, but here goes.
A town in North Carolina whose
citizens apparently have no access to the modern technology you and I take for
granted — the internet, television, or books — has rejected a proposal for a
solar farm off Highway 258 in Woodland, N.C.
The area around Woodland is a
popular choice because it has an electrical substation nearby, allowing the
panels to be hooked up to the national grid to supplementing the existing power
— thereby making it cheaper and more ecologically friendly.
The company, Strata, told
townspeople during a meeting that, “There are no negative impacts. A solar farm
is a wonderful use for a property like this.”
The spokesperson for the company
also added that “The panels don’t draw additional sunlight,” which would seem
like a pretty idiotic and unnecessary statement to make, until you spoke to
some of the town folk.
Jane Mann, a retired science
teacher, said she was concerned the panels would prevent plants in the area
from photosynthesizing, stopping them from growing. A science teacher said
that.
Mann said she had seen areas near solar panels where plants are brown and dead because they did not get enough sunlight.
Are you getting this? A science
teacher is worried that the solar panels will suck sun light away from the plants
around them and that they will die.
Mann also said she was concerned about
the rising risk of cancer deaths in the area – despite the fact that recent reports show the area’s cancer
rate is actually falling – saying that no one could tell her that solar panels
were not causing the cancer.
“I want to know what’s going to
happen,” she said. “I want information. Enough is
enough. I don’t see the profit for the town.
“People come with hidden agendas,”
she said. “Until we can find if anything is going to damage this community, we
shouldn’t sign any paper.”
It gets better. A lot better.
During the Woodland Town Council
meeting, Bobby Mann (possibly related to Jane) said solar farms would suck
up all the energy from the sun and businesses would not go to Woodland,
according to the “Roanoke-Chowan News Herald.”
During the hearing, Strata
representative Brent Niemann, actually felt compelled — in the 21st century
— to say, “The panels don’t draw additional sunlight.”
As a result, When Mayor Kenneth
Manual called for the vote, it was 3-1 against rezoning the land. That wasn’t
enough however, the council later voted for a moratorium on future solar farms.
Richard
Zombeck is a freelance writer & featured blogger at Huffington
Post. He's much older and angrier than he looks.