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Woodland gets hammered over public solar opposition

A story that ran last week in the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald reported that the town of Woodland, NC voted against a rezoning request for a solar farm after citizens opposed to the farm were concerned the solar farm would suck all the energy from the sun. Wrote News-Herald reporter Keith Hoggard:

Bobby Mann said he watched communities dry up when I-95 came along and warned that would happen to Woodland because of the solar farms.

“You’re killing your town,” he said. “All the young people are going to move out.”

He said the solar farms would suck up all the energy from the sun and businesses would not come to Woodland.

Jane Mann (Bobby Mann’s wife), also weighed in:

Jane Mann said she is a local native and is concerned about the natural vegetation that makes the community beautiful.

She is a retired Northampton science teacher and is concerned that photosynthesis, which depends upon sunlight, would not happen and would keep the vegetation from growing. She said she has observed areas near solar panels where vegetation is brown and dead because it did not receive enough sunlight.

She also questioned the high number of cancer deaths in the area, saying no one could tell her that solar panels didn’t cause cancer.

Hoggard’s story didn’t stress the reasoning behind the Woodland council’s decision to reject the rezoning. We were left with the assumption the farm was rejected because the solar farm would stop photosynthesis, drawing ridicule on Woodland from around the world. These two speakers were clearly misinformed, but instead the whole town was painted as being dumb hicks.

I’ve heard enough crazy things said during public hearings that I know it’s not fair to judge a whole town by the comments of a few of its residents. So if it wasn’t the public comments, what may have swayed the council? Looking more closely at the story, it becomes clear that the town already has three solar farms. Perhaps the town of 800 wasn’t ready to add another huge solar project?

In an article today, News and Observer’s John Murawski set the record straight. He quoted Woodland town councilmember Ron Lane saying:

“How would you and your family like to live in the middle of a solar farm, surrounded on all four sides?” said Lane, a retired elementary school principal. “We have approved three solar farms on almost three points of the compass. This would have completely boxed the town in with solar farms.”

So solar-sucking concern didn’t derail the solar farm, yet to the rest of the world North Carolina comes off looking dumb, even though those who ridicule are actually the ones who didn’t do their homework. Someone wrote a somewhat misleading story, other media outlets twisted it a little more to enhance its outrage value (and to fit a well-worn narrative), and poof – it took off like a rocket.

Greg Lacour of Charlotte Magazine spoke with the Manns earlier today.

Jane, a retired schoolteacher, said their comments at the meeting had been reported inaccurately. She was explaining this in a deliberate, schoolteacherly way when, in the background, Bobby interrupted.

“I didn’t say anything about anything sucking up no sun!”

Thing is, though, he sort of did. Well, he asked about it, anyway. Here’s the relevant portion of Bobby Mann’s comments from the draft board minutes:

No one has shown the proof at what the damage it will cause, what harm it will cause to the people, what harm it will cause to the plants and things. It is pulling that energy from the sun, you are going to kill some of these plants because the plant doesn’t have enough energy to continue to keep growing. We need the plants ourselves to help breathe. If we continue to keep going the big companies will benefit and the little towns will die. Everyone is moving out. They just said, you’re not going to be able to sell your property or your home. The ones that benefit are the landowners, the light company, the ones manufacturing the panels and the ones putting them up. What will happen afterwards? Has anyone shown proof that this is not going to cause any harm?

Bobby Mann is a 67-year-old retired truck driver who’s spent his life in rural eastern North Carolina. He told me he didn’t say the panels would drain energy from the sun; he was just asking about it. “What kind of effect is that going to have on the sun? I don’t know,” Bobby Mann told me. “That’s what I was asking them.”

So the “sucking energy from the sun” phrase Hoggard used was poor paraphrasing. What he was really asking was:

“What kind of effect is that going to have on the sun? I don’t know,” Bobby Mann told me. “That’s what I was asking them.”

… and you know what? I think that’s actually a fair question from someone who might not know how solar panels work.

Local political guru Gary Pearce took offense at the backlash against Woodland, apparently too close to home for him:

But let’s not wait for facts. Ridicule first, research later – or never.

This a town bypassed by the prosperity we enjoy in Raleigh, Charlotte and Chapel Hill. Long-timers have watched factories shut down, businesses wither away and young people leave or descend into drugs.

People in Woodland don’t buy their coffee at Starbucks or their groceries at Whole Foods. They suspect we look down on them and make fun of them.

And we can’t understand why they don’t vote for us.

The sting Gary’s feeling here is apparent but he does have a point. Rural voters don’t feel respected by urban voters. Twisting a story into something that pokes fun at rural folks is not the best way to win them over.