(A Piedmont Environmental Council map depicts the Maroon (burgundy) and Greenwood (purple) utility-scale solar power plant sites proposed between the towns of Culpeper, Stevensburg and Lignum).

It is cloudy this morning, so cloudy I couldn’t read the meter for the electricity. They say we will see the sun again in a few days. I got a note from Susan, a nice lady who has examined the massive solar project the North Carolina company wants to carefully emplace on 1,700 acres of agricultural land just down the lane from Refuge Farm. That is why I am late this morning- afternoon, now, and the detailed production schedule at Socotra enterprise was thrown into chaos.

You may recall that I foolishly wrote a note to the Board of Planning a while back, and subjected you to it. The Planners rejected the solar proposal, but of course nothing is over until it is over and the last taxpayer dollar is spent. I heard yesterday that the “Maroon Solar case has been scheduled to be heard by the Board of Supervisors (BOS) on Tuesday, May 4 at 7 PM.”

They took care not to specify a place for the meeting, and the timing is just about bedtime here at the farm. I have made inquiries for a litter-bearing detail to get me to wherever the session will be held. The last one of these proposed projects- 2018- resulted in a somewhat tumultuous Supervisors session, and has not been resolved. The Socotra Legal Team was incensed, since they are embroiled in an extended conflict with the indigenous Irish who are camping near the loading dock. Something about reparations, we understand.

The Planners were unanimous in opposing the scope of the massive project- 340 times the size of my little part of the Piedmont. That did not mention the adjacent Greenwood project, a 748 acre array of glass which has been the subject of contentious debate since the approval two years ago. Maroon is taking the Planners seriously, and have written the Supervisors to request approval despite the Planners denial.

They ran an Op-Ed in the local paper on Sunday which attacked me, personally, in a somewhat startling manner. The article accused me of spreading disinformation, since the aluminum framed solar arrays are constructed solely of sand. It also doubled the number of local temporary jobs to 400, and assured me nothing whatsoever has ever occurred here despite the hundred thousand troops who camped on the property in the late unpleasantness between the States. The battlefield is across the road, and the troops were careful to mind the signs.

And all those trucks? No problems. They say they will fix the road when they are done.

Better yet, the Maroon people also have developed some sort of Romulan Cloaking Device which they assure us will render the whole thing invisible.

It is my fault, of course, since I don’t understand why a North Carolina company wants to emplant 1,700 acres of solar panels built in China just down the road to benefit the customers of Dominion Power seventy miles up the road in Northern Virginia.

Naturally, we plan on attending the meeting and not relying solely on irate letters to achieve justice. The legal staff indicated there were busloads of concerned citizens who want to attend, if we can get a few buses to McCallen, Texas. We turned that matter over to Legal and wondered if the Governor has permitted the saloons in town to open early. There is no sunshine today, so why not?

Copyright 2021 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com