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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNorth Carolina town rejects solar because it'll suck up sunlight and kill the plants
A town meeting in Woodland, North Carolina heard public comments on a proposed solar farm in which citizens, including a retired science teacher called Jane Mann spoke out against the proposal.
Ms Mann opposes the solar expansion because she believes it would lower her property values. She also said that plants near solar farms do not thrive because there wasn't enough sunshine left over for them to photosynthesize. She also evinced a belief that solar panels cause cancer. Her husband added that solar panels "suck up all the energy from the sun."
The town council voted a moratorium on all future solar farms.
She is a retired Northampton science teacher and is concerned that photosynthesis, which depends upon sunlight, would not happen and would keep the plants from growing. She said she has observed areas near solar panels where the plants are brown and dead because they did not get enough sunlight.
She also questioned the high number of cancer deaths in the area, saying no one could tell her that solar panels didnt cause cancer.
I want to know whats going to happen, she said. I want information. Enough is enough. I dont 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 shouldnt sign any paper.
more
http://boingboing.net/2015/12/13/north-carolina-town-rejects-so.html
certainot
(9,090 posts)North Carolina 8, North Carolina State 3, Duke 3, East Carolina 2, endorse 16 limbaugh stations
they should go screw themselves for supporting rw radio
Archae
(46,356 posts)liberal N proud
(60,347 posts)Archae
(46,356 posts)3catwoman3
(24,058 posts)...fishes.
I'll see your and raise you a .
This kind of ignorance in the general populace is horrifying enough, but from a science teacher? Pitiful.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)HuckleB
(35,773 posts)It appears that there are a couple of woomeisters in the town, but most people's reasons regarded other issues.
liberal N proud
(60,347 posts)hobbit709
(41,694 posts)It would cut down on idiots saying crap that is insulting to the intelligence of a bucket of slime mold.
treestar
(82,383 posts)If only it made their heads hurt !
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)The only people this weapons-grade stupid hurts are those intelligent enough to recognize how stupid it is.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)sigh.
oldandhappy
(6,719 posts)This is not real, I hope.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)Recursion
(56,582 posts)The reason the town voted against it was because they were afraid it would make house prices fall.
Solly Mack
(90,790 posts)hughee99
(16,113 posts)ScreamingMeemie
(68,918 posts)sarisataka
(18,810 posts)octoberlib
(14,971 posts)nation for solar until the the GOP took control. I bet this teacher is on somebody's payroll.
MisterP
(23,730 posts)they even suborned the Florida NAACP to say "it's racist!!!111"
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-solar-race-20150209-story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/in-smog-battle-industry-gets-help-from-unlikely-source-black-business-group/2015/09/28/8c1c7e34-63c8-11e5-9757-e49273f05f65_story.html
http://fcir.org/2015/08/13/national-black-chamber-of-commerce-solar-energy-critic-rakes-in-cash-from-polluters/
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Sanity Claws
(21,860 posts)But remember, in some places, they consider creationism as science.
I wouldn't be surprised if creationism was her specialty.
liberal N proud
(60,347 posts)They are about 70 miles from the outer banks and they want to have beach front property.
SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)niyad
(113,600 posts)greiner3
(5,214 posts)Also what science did she teach. Might be she's in the early stages of altheimers. My mother had anger and loss of reality as her first signs as well
lpbk2713
(42,769 posts)You just can't make this chit up.
arcane1
(38,613 posts)RKP5637
(67,112 posts)B Calm
(28,762 posts)Vinca
(50,318 posts)Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)IcyPeas
(21,912 posts)it's what plants crave
HuckleB
(35,773 posts)Here's the original story, where most of the reasons the town objected are much more reality based.
http://www.roanoke-chowannewsherald.com/2015/12/08/woodland-rejects-solar-farm/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link
And Snopes' take: http://www.snopes.com/north-carolina-town-rejects-solar-panels/
wildeyed
(11,243 posts)It's a click bait mischaracterization of a boring local zoning battle. A few people said dumb things, but the real concern seems to be that the solar farms decrease property values and bring very few jobs or taxes into the community.
She added that the only people profiting are the landowners who sell their land, the solar companies, and the electric companies.
HuckleB
(35,773 posts)kcr
(15,320 posts)And cleared their good name.
wildeyed
(11,243 posts)The average income is 22k per year. They may not be up to your high, high intellectual standards, but I don't understand why that makes it ok for rich solar farm owners to rob them.
BTW, they are also Democrats. The district is toward the beach side of the state, which trends democratic, even in the rural areas. It half black and they send a dem to the state legislature.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodland,_North_Carolina#Demographics
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article49766215.html
malaise
(269,212 posts)Blissful ignorance on steroids
Recursion
(56,582 posts)In both cases it's about the fact that people want to keep their property values from falling, with some pablum thrown in to make it sound less mercenary.
wildeyed
(11,243 posts)These are poor people, many elderly or disabled and on a fixed income. And FYI, the NC GOP legislature is having some sort of internal battle over these farms, so there is a boondoggle here somewhere. Some rich guy is jacking these people's property values and putting the extra $$$ in his pocket, I guarantee it. Because I know how the NCGA rolls these days.
The solar farm owners need to pay some local taxes or buy out the adjoining land at market value or above.
quaker bill
(8,225 posts)All the time. I have been a professional in this business for 22 years.
The interesting thing about P&Z meetings is that at some level sentiment of the neighbors, regardless of how poorly informed, can actually be considered relevant. I would place a caveat on this because there is a level at which the 4th amendment property rights of the party seeking the new zoning can be violated. In this case, I would say the decision rides that line.
The comments of the commissioners voting on it would be important. If they were bowing to public sentiment and simply deciding the proposed land use is incompatible, then the decision might be sustainable. If on the other hand their comments suggest that they were concerned about sucking the area dry of solar energy, the landowner could probably sue and get the decision reversed.
wildeyed
(11,243 posts)was actually a poorly writing and/or express comment that the plants around existing farms were brown and dead, either from the shade of the panel or perhaps they spray Roundup (MONSANTO, y'all ).
quaker bill
(8,225 posts)as allowing the weeds to shade the panels would defeat the purpose. There are other ways that do not involve Roundup. It could be poor writing, I have certainly been misquoted by the press. However I also know that people do say wacky things in the heat of the moment.
wildeyed
(11,243 posts)Because these people are not. They are rural. The average income is 22k. But not GOP.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodland,_North_Carolina#Demographics
Woodland is in the first congressional district of North Carolina, and since 2004 is represented in Congress by G. K. Butterfield.[7] It is within the traditionally Democratic county of Northampton which was one of only two counties in the state won by George McGovern.[8]
They have legit concerns about their property values. Someone posted a click bait article that took a few comments out of context and now they are hit with a tsunami of internet outrage.
Solar energy is good. But in NC, hardcore GOP donors are getting into the game, as is Duke Energy. This is good insofar as solar energy is sustainable and if the big money is investing, we could be turning a corner. But these guys give not a single shit about local landowners or anything other than big profits they can ship overseas. They are just as rapacious as ever. The locals need some protection too.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article49766215.html
niyad
(113,600 posts)"bees love solar"