Always great is for opinions to be based on facts. Last week we had a commentary in this paper criticizing that the new legislature will only look at “unreliable solar, wind and battery storage” to meet Viginia’s growing need for new sources of electricity. Unreliable? Solar and wind technologies are now very reliable – the bugs have been worked out long ago of converting their energy into electricity. And we have had batteries for a very long time – and of course their technology is continuing to improve. So why is anyone claiming that they are bad things? And I have to believe that proposals developed by representatives of the people will only consider reliable projects.
We are facing an energy crisis in Virginia. Electricity rates continue to rise as more large users (data centers, etc.) are developed here, meaning new demand is greatly exceeding new supply. Last year’s “APCO Rate Reduction Act” even deferred some past costs (which temporarily reduced electricity costs) so that we will pay for these past costs well into the future. Clearly, we need to expand energy production here and do it in an affordable way.
One argument last week is that legislation is being planned that “will force local governments to accept solar farms and battery projects that would otherwise be rejected by local residents.” Does anyone know of any new energy generation project that people want locally? How about the new Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) passing through our region – I certainly recall massive local opposition. But it was built anyway, and now MVP is asking the federal government permission to build a new gas compressor station in Montgomery County and Pittsylvania County. Local opposition is already trying to stop these projects due to concerns over air quality and noise pollution, but local governments have no legislative ability to stop the permitting process. Is it okay for the federal government to site pipelines and industrial facilities in our communities while we can only prevent solar panels? Personally, I’d be much more worried living next to an industrial plant compressing highly explosive and polluting natural gas than living next to a field of solar panels. Or living near a pipeline for that matter.
Apparently unique to the United States, we have many government officials opposing the use of renewable energy. Yet, the entire world is turning to renewable energy! An increase in solar generation met about 40% of new global electricity production in 2024, with other clean energy production meeting about another 40% of global electricity growth. About 80% of the planet’s added energy production is being done with clean energy! Why are we the only country in the world to be opposed to using the sun and wind to power our economies? Do we really know something that no one in all the other countries of the world don’t know?
We need our local politicians to develop good ideas to increase energy production in our Commonwealth. All too often, good ideas are replaced with criticizing the ideas of the “competition.” Wouldn’t it be good if we had a rule – that for every time a local elected official criticizes someone else’s idea they need to come up with a practical and useful idea of their own. Great would be to hear more about “this is a way to solve our problem” rather than “someone else’s idea is bad.” Let’s hope that’s what we see in 2026’s legislature.
