It is notable that, in his dismissive attack on my support for the Morgnec Road Solar project, Dr. Lewis elected not to disclose either his role as co-founder of Kent Conservation and Preservation Alliance (KCPA) whose stated mission is perpetual preservation of 100% of existing Kent County farmland regardless of property owners’ rights and needs and the economic, environmental, or social merits of alternative land use proposals; or the fact that the gated entrance to his 322-acre waterfront estate happens to be down the road from the proposed solar project location. Might there be an overarching self-interest component to Dr. Lewis’ objection to this project?
Since its 2015 inception, KCPA has adamantly opposed virtually all alternative land use proposals, employing increasingly questionable tactics such as basing arguments on outdated irrelevant information and unsubstantiated “facts”; often making apples to oranges comparisons; demonizing development advocates; unconscionably twisting and misrepresenting opposing views; and regularly issuing “chicken little” predictions of pending doom in their dogged effort to achieve their goal. When presented with irrefutable data and market statistics that challenge or disprove their arguments, KCPA’s response routinely devolves into sardonic personal attacks intended to intimidate and quash differences of opinion. This strategy is in full view in Dr, Lewis’s 9/27 letter to the Spy castigating my endorsement of the Morgnec Road Solar proposal.
For readers who don’t know who or what to believe in this debate, additional information on what is known for fact relative to the proposed project is as follows:
- Since 2010, Kent County has lost between 1000 and 1500 residents to relocation and death. Given our aging population and historical opposition to development, population diminution is likely to continue. If so, by the time Chestertown is pressured to expand town limits down Morgnec Road – if ever- most principals in this debate will be dead and gone. Chestertown’s opposition to project approval and corresponding effort to hold property outside of town limits hostage to the dubious possibility of future town expansion needs – prospectively for decades– is simply wrong and unconscionable.
- If you drive out Morgnec Road to the proposed solar farm location, you’ll pass a huge Delmarva electric transmission station, Bramble Construction, Delmarva Casting Works, Atlantic Tractor, Choptank Electric and Kent County Public Works in the mile long stretch fronting the Clark family property. All these enterprises occupy multi-acre, largely blacktopped lots housing heavy equipment, industrial products, and Public Works supply storage. From an environmental, ecological, and Smart Growth perspective, clustering a beneficial solar power farm sited on pollinator friendly meadow land with existing industrial enterprises makes infinitely more sense than siting a costly large-scale housing development there.
- Dr. Lewis’ claim that Morgnec Road is “the principal “gateway to Chestertown could not be more wrong. For most county residents and visitors, that route is undeniably Route 213. This is not a “principal gateway” issue.
- Dr. Lewis’s claim that solar energy does not deliver consumer cost savings ignores and contradicts current solar energy cost data compiled by numerous energy use oversight experts and organizations including Bloomberg New Energy Finance Climatescope that in 2014 reported that “renewable energy is just as affordable an option as fossil fuel in 55 emerging nations across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean “; Lazard’s 2019 Levelized cost of Energy Report that found that “utility scale solar PV is at cost parity with fossil fuel” and, most recently, the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook (WEO)2020 report that concluded that “Solar power schemes now offer the “cheapest… electricity in history” with the [solar] technology cheaper than coal and gas in most major countries.” The WOE also reported a 20-50% reduction in the cost of solar energy power reduction from 2019 to 2020, spurring a global surge in solar power generation development. Dr. Lewis might find it enlightening to survey the tens of thousands of US families and companies who have significantly reduced, if not eliminated, electric service costs by installing solar power systems in their homes and offices.
- The information Dr. Lewis cites to support his vehement damnation of solar power as an alternative energy source and apparent preference for fossil fuel-based energy is woefully outdated and doesn’t square with growing demand for and investment in solar energy in the US and around the world. His claim that fossil fuel-based energy is less expensive and more dependable than renewable solar energy, ignores the fact that, unlike fossil fuels, the fuel component of solar power is free. He also overlooks huge continuing consumer tax-financed subsidies paid to fossil fuel producers and the regular disruptions in fossil fuel supply caused by frequent oil embargos and climate-change based natural disasters. Frankly, I find the sun more reliable. Innovations in battery-based solar power storage are projected to fully address service dependability questions given that solar power production does, indeed, cease when the sun goes down at night.
- The Morgnec Road solar power facility will supplement, not replace, fossil fuel powered energy supporting our regional electric power grid. Dr. Lewis’ harum-scarum scenario of required costly back up power generation systems does not apply here. In fact, locally sourced solar power will, conversely, back up the grid’s fossil fuel-based power, improving its service delivery reliability.
For the record, I don’t’ stand to again anything from project approval other than prospectively lower electric bills and improved peace of mind about electric outage avoidance. I could go on addressing misinformation in Dr. Lewis’s letter, but the bottom line is that the MD Public Service Commission will be deciding this issue if the Commissioners don’t soon change their position on it. Spy readers who agree that the proposed project should be approved and that spending $15K to $20K of limited county resources to continue to oppose it is a waste of time and money are urged to let both our Commissioners and the Public Service Commission know your position.
Paula Reeder
Chestertown
Alice M.Barron says
NO PANELS PLEASE…. I’d much rather see CORN!!
Paula Reeder says
As you know, he did. It’s just taken mankind a long time to figure it out!
Paula Reeder says
Fact is Alice, that location has not been actively farmed in years. Wouldn’t you prefer to see a flowering meadow land there spread out under and around the solar arrays rather than a huge housing subdivision? You be the judge.
tsmith@riddlebergerins.com says
THANK YOU!!!! Agreed
Clark Bjorke says
If God wanted us to have unlimited free energy he’d have put a giant fusion reactor in the sky. – Oh wait
Michael Bitting says
amen.
Deirdre LaMotte says
Ok, that is priceless!
Mike Bitting says
RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE go the boomers and vacation home owners for something they don’t understand or care to try to. Our environment has been destroyed by them and wealth hoarded by them. To heck with the next generation.
bart stolp says
my energy needs, supplemented for the past 6 years by solar panels, especially during the hot summer month , has cost me $9..- per month ,mainly tax fees.
Wake up folks, there will be plenty of corn fields to enjoy.
Maria Wood says
Those who are committed to preserving the Kent County landscape, culture, and way of life should give some thought to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s warning last week (https://www.ipcc.ch/2021/08/09/ar6-wg1-20210809-pr/). In the words of UN Secretary General António Guterres, humanity is at a “code red” level of emergency for global climate change.
Unprecedented storms, floods, droughts, and fires just in the past year show us that the time for debate and hand-wringing is over. The IPCC tells us that “Coastal areas will see continued sea level rise throughout the 21st century, contributing to more frequent and severe coastal flooding in low-lying areas and coastal erosion. Extreme sea level events that previously occurred once in 100 years could happen every year by the end of this century.”
Kent County residents have no excuse for denying or ignoring this reality. Sunny day flooding already regularly inundates the riverfronts of our towns and countrysides alike. The cost of flood damage to Kent County properties is projected to be $2.1 million this year—and $3.3 million in 30 years. That’s an increase of 61%, so property owners would be wise to take the issue seriously.
Bold, decisive action on every front is necessary to preserve our farmland and communities, our economies and our ways of life. Last month’s UNIPCC report advises “By 2030, solar and wind capacity should quadruple and renewable energy investments should triple to maintain a net zero trajectory by mid-century.”
The proposed solar project, on the outskirts of town near existing industrial sites (including, as Ms. Reeder notes, a Delmarva power substation!) is an eminently reasonable and appropriate step toward addressing a global emergency—an emergency in which low-lying coastal areas like Kent County are on the front lines. Those with a “not in my backyard” approach might consider how they’ll feel about the Chester River in their backyards, their homes, and their streets.
Beryl Smith says
Thank you Paula for being consistent and clear. You are the voice we need to speak for the environment and ways to use what we can so easily get with so little effort.
Jim Bogden says
This issue is a real dilemma for those of us who aim to “think globally, act locally.” The big picture is that humanity needs to transition from using fossil fuels to collecting the sun’s energy as quickly as possible, wherever possible. True, Chestertown won’t directly benefit from this project, it precludes future development options, and the company does not play nice. On balance, though, I reluctantly favor it. (And personally, I don’t think land already ruined by industrialized agriculture is nice to look at.)
Deirdre LaMotte says
Yelp, agree totally. And as far as industrialized agriculture, we live with the “Round-Up” plane spewing
Quaker Neck. Yuck.
Johnson Fortenbaugh says
Paula Reeder issued an impressive serve in her initial volley which Dr. Lewis returned with a nasty, wobbly spin. Bravo to Ms. Reeder for sending it back over the net straight and true: Point, Game,and Match in my opinion.
As a home solar energy customer with 3 years track record I can say that Reeder’s arguments ring perfectly true to me.
I’ll be writing the County Commissioners today to voice my support for the Morgnec Solar Project and urge other Kent Countians who hope to turn the rising tide of our dependence on fossil fuels to do the same.