Tag: Rural development
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Nobody Cares about You, Southwest Virginia, and Maybe That’s a Good Thing
The Roanoke Times tells a hard truth to the readers of Southwest Virginia: “Nobody cares about you.” Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe, says the Sunday editorial, has done nothing to help the counties of the far Southwest whose finances were devastated by the collapse of the coal industry. The Democratic Party in Virginia has “evolved into…
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Rappahannock Water Quality Endangered by Fracking?
American Rivers has listed the Rappahannock River as the fifth “most endangered” river in the United States. The environmental group claims the river is threatened by industry interest in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations in the Taylorsville Basin lying thousands of feet beneath the river. The quality of drinking water of three million people in eastern Virginia are…
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How National Monopolies Drain Rural Economies
Virginia’s rural communities suffer from huge disadvantages when competing for job-creating corporate investment. Low density makes it expensive to install high-bandwidth Internet service. The small size of rural communities makes it difficult to support the amenities that skilled, educated workers are looking for. And, most important, corporations prefer locating in metropolitan areas with “deep” labor…
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Will NIMBYs Thwart SolUnesco Solar Plan?
Not all barriers to solar energy emanate from Richmond. Take Albemarle County, for example. The county zoning code outlaws solar farms, we learn from Charlottesville Tomorrow. “The current zoning ordinance allows for the transmission and distribution of energy, but not the generation of energy,” said county planner Margaret Maliszewski at Wednesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting. The issue arose…