I would like to praise the Owensboro Metropolitan Planning and Zoning Commission for voting recently, and “unanimously,” to approve an amendment to an ordinance that encourages alternative energy in our county.
Although Judge-Executive Charlie Castlen helped negotiate changes to this previously mentioned ordinance, Castlen then voted to approve a one-year moratorium on any solar fields, with Commissioner Larry Conder being the lone vote against the moratorium.
At a recent meeting sponsored by Eastern Daviess County Commissioner Marksberry, she voiced concerns that any electricity produced by a solar field wouldn’t be used locally. At one time, according to the Sierra Club, the Kentucky Ohio Valley had 27 coal-fired power plants in operation, with the Rockport power plant being just across the river. Does anyone think that these previously mentioned power plants’ electricity was/is used locally? Yet, I am sure the air pollution of these plants is breathed locally.
In the past, we have even allowed strip mining right here in Daviess County. No solar field could possibly have worse consequences for our health or environment than a coal strip mine. Commissioner Marksberry also voiced concerns that a solar field could lead to additional flooding. Yet, the same amount of rain is going to fall whether the solar field is there or not — maybe the rain just falls a few feet in another direction.
In these times, why be opposed to “any” large economic project for our community? Therefore, why not build solar fields right here? We’ve surely “erred” worse!
Written by
Jimmy Kamuf
