$2,174,545. TWO million! That’s the amount of money the Board of Commissioners say they have spent or have committed to spend for the purchase of land and site development for Fibrowatt. Two million! That’s an awful lot on the backs of a small community with a high unemployment rate. And at past commissioners meetings, they talked about money being spent on that purchase and preparation of land for a generic industry NOT Fibrowatt. By doing this citizens were not allowed to discuss Fibrowatt. Sneaky, wasn’t it?
This amount was the number they, themselves used, in the petition they filed siding WITH Fibrowatt and AGAINST the electric companies in the suit the electric companies have against Fibrowatt. See, all this started back in 2007 when a bill was passed that required electric companies to purchase or product a percentage of their power from renewable sources by 2012. The intent of the law was CLEAN renewable sources, like wind or solar but Fibrowatt had their sights set on us back then and had the bill modified to included chicken and pig poop. Sure, chicken poop is renewable. We all know that. But that’s was not the intent of the bill. Chicken poop is not a clean source of power. It’s dirtier than coal. The power companies don’t want to be forced into buying Fibrowatt’s electricity because it is so expensive to product and they know they will have to pass that cost on to its customers. And it they have to purchase it, they will not have to funds to explore other clean avenues of producing power. But why did the commissioners even get involved in this suit? Why didn’t they just let Fibrowatt and Duke duke it out? And why are they taking a stand against us and for Fibrowatt? Oh yeah, they have $2,174,545 of your tax payer dollars to spend.
I think back on what Elkin was like a decade ago. There have been many changes. Some wonderful and some not so good. One exciting change is the new patient tower, ER and parking deck at Hugh Chatham Hospital. They are beautiful! You have to feel better just lying in one of those beautiful modern patient rooms! Well, its good that they have a new patient tower and modern facilities as Elkin is going to need it with a toxic smoke blowing incinerator less than 2 miles away.
Joan Vasata
Elkin
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