The Warren Record Keeps the Record: Stopping the Mega Solar Land Grab

Article and photo by Luci Weldon, Warren Record assistant editor and photographer.

Above WR Photo: Deborah Ferruccio asks zoning consultant Jake Petrosky if he’s ever seen outright regulatory exemptions (a green light) for high impact polluters. Ken Ferruccio watches on as Petrosky admits he has not. 

WR article and letter refer to Scott Murray, Roanoke River Basin Association Upper Reach Program Director whose leadership has been invaluable in educating the people and public officials on actual negative impacts of industrial-scale solar. _________________________________________________________________________________________________

In this episode, Deborah and Ken explain why they haven't podcasted for over seven months as they pivoted from their work as podcast historians back once again to researchers, educators and community activists.

The issues they and other Warren County citizens have been facing are age-old ones over land use, the rights of landowners, and in this case, the power of mega corporations to try to position themselves to profit  from what industries call “solar electric gold.”

Through coverage in the Warren Record, this episode follows the citizens’  “Close the Door to Horizon and Industrial-Scale Solar” campaign.

As the county government moves to consolidate all its land use ordinances into one Unified Ordinance, intensive lobbying efforts to lift solar regulations are unloosed by Horizon Solar, a subsidiary of a $15 trillion international conglomerate. 

The plan is to convince commissioners to lift current size and spacing solar restrictions so that Horizon can build two 450-acre mega solar facilities that will be equivalent to 1,080 football fields!

The prospect that commissioners might open the regulatory door to utility-scale power so that thousands of acres of football-field-sized solar installations could be built, end-to-end along the electric grid, does not sit well with the majority of Warren County citizens who favor protecting and furthering the county’s agricultural, timber, recreational, housing, and tourism economies, as well as supporting community-scale solar. 

Citizens also know the mega-scale solar land grab is possibly positioning the county for solar-powered hyper-scale AI data centers.

The public’s sentiment is informed and fierce, and Warren Record coverage shows the people are relentless. 

The way Ken puts it to zoning officials, “Here in a birthplace of environmental justice, the people lead.” 

Transcript

EPISODE 47: The Warren Record Keeps the Record: 

       Stopping the Land-Grab Gold Rush   

DEBORAH

Our listeners probably have been wondering, what happened? Our last podcast was seven months ago in July. Did we give up their podcasting? 

We did not, but we should have told our listeners we’d be back, that we had to pivot from our current work as podcast historians once again to environmental researchers, educators, and community activists. We found ourselves in the trenches of a new environmental issue here in Warren County that’s part of age-old issues over land use; the importance and meaning of public sentiment, and the rights of communities to determine their own future. 

The issue of land use and in particular, industrial-scale solar, came to the attention of Warren County citizens in the summer of 2025, when we learned that our county was in the process of consolidating and updating all of its land use ordinances into one Unified Development Ordinance (abbreviated UDO).

Central to the UDO Initiative have been intensive lobbying efforts by Horizon Solar to convince county commissioners to expand regulations that currently restrict the size and spacing of solar facilities. Horizon is a subsidiary of TED Renewables, the North American “cornerstone” of a 15 trillion dollar Japanese-owned conglomerate that has invested in detailed plans for two 450-acre solar facilities in Warren County.

Since the UDO initiative has been covered closely in our local newspaper, the Warren Record, in this episode, we're going to follow that coverage because our hometown newspaper gives a voice to ordinary people by providing a space for public discussion and by facilitating public awareness of issues relevant to the people. 

We’re following the paper's historic account of how Warren County citizens are modeling proactive grassroots environmentalism by pressing local commissioners to pass regulations that prevent pollution in the first place. Some may call the model NIMBYism (not in my back yard). We call it defending our county — the place known for birthing the environmental justice movement — defending our county from a corporate land-grab that would transform the county and bankrupt its greatest wealth — its lands, waters, and natural resources.

In our research, as we began to connect the dots, we learned that Horizon and TED Renewables aren’t the only mega-scale corporations positioning themselves to benefit from Warren County’s land and resources. There are related players, including Amazon Web Services and quite possibly Microsoft; Engie Energy, a French-owned, multinational electric utility company; Carolina Solar Services; Geenex Solar, and Duke Energy Renewables. 

Key to all these corporate solar-related players is the non-profit Center for Energy Education founded by George Veit who is also founder and CEO of Geenex Solar. In 2014, Geenex built a small solar installation on an old Halifax County airport in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, then sold the installation to Duke Energy Renewables.

The following year, Veit then led the effort to build the Center for Energy Education next to the same airport solar property — as a hub for utility-scale solar. Duke donated $100,000 in initial seed monies to the non-profit Center.

If you go to the Center’s website, and click, “Involvement,” you can see that it is no coincidence that the Center’s reach extends to other non-profit Centers for Energy Education that are located only in states where Duke Energy operates, including North Carolina, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky.

It might be worth taking a few moments to share some connections, as we began to look at the big picture, especially concerning the environmental record of Charlotte-based Duke Energy, the largest investor-owned electric utility company in the U.S., which heavily influences the politics of energy here in North Carolina — whether the utility is coal, oil, gas, nuclear, or renewable energy, especially utility-scale solar. 

KEN

Duke Energy has a less than stellar reputation, as evidenced by a recent Environmental Working Group article titled: “Why Duke — America’s Biggest Electric Utility — Is Also the Worst for the Environment.” 

Duke’s investment in the Roanoke Rapids Center for Energy Education appears to be part of a rebranding public relations effort to greenwash Duke’s tarnished reputation. In 2014, some 80,000 tons of 

Duke’s toxic coal ash and some 2 million gallons of contaminated toxic sludge breached into the Dan River, contaminating the 70-mile water-way. The river empties into Kerr Lake Reservoir which empties into Lake Gaston. More than a million North Carolinians and Virginians depend on this water. 

Duke Energy was not only covered in the slime of the Dan River coal ash disaster. Duke owned dozens of leaking coal ash pits and ponds across the state. Duke was also faced with the push to phase out fossil fuels, so the corporation needed to focus public attention on renewables, even as the company has continued over the past decade to focus on fossil fuels — with 70% of its energy currently coming from coal and nuclear power. 

As we did our utility-scale solar research, we could see that the Center for Energy Education isn’t just the tax-exempt, renewable energy “hub” it describes itself to be. It is the political entry-point for corporate utility-scale solar into the various communities of the region. While the Center supports for-profit, corporate utility-scale solar, it benefits as a non-profit organization with tax-exempt status.

We concerned citizens continued to connect the dots. We could see that the Center and various corporations were connected in a kind of solar energy “gold rush” for land. This term, “gold rush” was used by Carolina Solar Developer Richard Hark-raider in a September 15, 2022 Time magazine article titled: “How Amazon Became the Largest Buyer of Renewable Energy in the World” as Hark-raider stood among the 223,000 solar panels on property he had bought in Warren County that borders Lake Gaston. 

Harkrader then leased the land to Engie Energy to build the 526-acre Hawtree Creek Solar installation. Engie then struck a Power Purchase Agreement to sell the Hawtree solar power to Amazon Web Services.

In September 2022, most Warren County citizens knew nothing about this solar gold rush and about Amazon Web Services. Why? What about commissioners and zoning administrators who had approved the Hawtree Solar facility? Why didn’t they tell us, the public they serve, about Amazon?

Also, that September, Deborah and I had just launched our first two podcasts to counter the re-narration of the PCB environmental justice history being promoted as part of the 40th anniversary celebration of the 1982 PCB protest movement. 

So, while we were busy exposing the documented history and local and federal officials were spotlighting their version of the PCB protest movement, on September 15, 2022, Time magazine, was spotlighting what local officials had not disclosed to the public, namely that Amazon, — the largest buyer of renewable energy in the world — had purchased Warren County solar power for its Web Services. 

We learned only recently that this news of the Amazon power agreement had been shrouded from the public for the previous three years and that on October 24, 2019, several energy trade journals had announced Amazon’s renewable energy plans for Warren County. In retrospect, we can understand why that same year commissioners blocked attempts by a county/citizen task force to regulate high impact polluting industries.

Were county officials facilitating and protecting utility-scale solar?  Amazon Web Services and hyper-scale AI data centers?

DEBORAH

The  September Time magazine article continued:  “I think it’s magic,” Carolina Solar and Hawtree Creek landowner Richard Harkrader,” said. “You take sunlight and . . . boom!”

The solar boom Harkrader is talking about is really the sound of a utility-scale wrecking-ball, as state, national, and multi-national corporations stand to profit from what the solar industry refers to as “electric gold.” While mega-solar facilities make corporations wealthy, they negatively impact the environment and natural resources, especially agricultural and timber lands. What’s more, mega-solar significantly devalues properties in a three-mile radius and offers just a handful of permanent jobs. 

Warren County is a target for mega-scale solar investments and high impact land uses, especially booming artificial intelligence (AI) data centers because of our connection to the mid-Atlantic power grid; our large tracks of land; Lake Gaston and Kerr Lake waters; and because of regulatory exemptions that invite high impact polluting land uses.

No doubt, land grabbers are looking to locate where the regulations are weak and locals make it easy.  They are also concerned about a potential flashpoint grassroots opposition when the community’s model for environmental justice is based on pollution prevention, namely, stopping the threat before it becomes a reality. 

Warren County’s Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) year-long zoning initiative is directed by County Zoning Administrator Mark Bloomer. Commissioners hired zoning consultant Jake Petrosky to work with Bloomer. Petrosky works with Stewart, a company which is part of the Stratus Team, a multi-disciplinary global corporation focusing on many kinds of land use issues. Petrosky also led the county’s 2022 Comprehensive Development Plan that includes the current solar restrictions. Both Bloomer and Petrosky serve at the pleasure of the commissioners.

Bloomer’s and Petrosky’s projected August, 2025, time-line completion of the UDO was at best ambitious. It certainly wasn’t realistic because land use issues and regulations are more often than not disputed, heated, and rightfully contentious. They take time to address because they are about tangibles and intangibles, about safety and quality of life, equal protection, regulations, and about what local values govern our communities.

We citizens continued over the the summer and fall of 2025 to unite in an unwavering campaign to convince our county commissioners to adopt land use regulations that protect the county’s future from a corporate high impact and utility-scale solar land-grab.

Our focus was on distinguishing facts from myths concerning utility-scale solar. It's the potential impacts of industrial solar that have motivated community members to actively join the opposition and to speak out at county commissioners,’ zoning, and code committee meetings; at public forums and community events; and in countless letters to the editor in our local newspaper, the Warren Record whose mission is to “be a visual and written record of what makes our community special.”

We are focusing the rest of this podcast on the Warren Record coverage of our “close the doors to utility-scale solar” campaign. This record demonstrates just how special our community is as we citizens reflect the power of public sentiment and model what research-based activism looks like, in this case, when it comes to opposing mega solar and achieving environmental protection and justice. 

KEN

Even as our opposition built, consultant Petrosky and Zoning Administrator Bloomer continued to propose lifting solar restrictions in the UDO draft. We citizens could see what we were up against. Commissioners could also see what they were up against.

By the July 7 county commissioners’ meeting, utility-scale solar was becoming a hot-button issue as evidenced in a front-page Warren Record article titled: “Citizens become angry when public comments limited to two minutes.” With the article are photos of a protester outside holding signs that read: “[Commissioner Tare] Davis Must Resign” and“Fire Bloomer,” [the Zoning administrator]. 

Next to these photos is a photo of Deborah being escorted out of the commissioners’ meeting by 

Warren County Sheriff Branche. 

The article began, “A number of local residents who signed up to speak during Monday night’s meeting of the Warren County Board of Commissioners became angry when time for individual speakers was reduced from five to two minutes.”

We could understand why Chair Angelena Kearney-Dunlap limited the time because of how many people had signed up to speak. But when she allowed extended comments from citizens who spoke about issues that were not controversial, the crowd of citizens was outraged. When Deborah spoke about the proposed solar regulations and about exemptions for polluters, as she was ending her comments, she mentioned the power of public sentiment, and Chair Kearney-Dunlap interrupted her, informing Deborah that her two minutes were up. Deborah politely asked to briefly finish her remarks. The chair said, “No,” but Deborah continued anyway, until after the Chair’s third prompt, Deborah  was escorted out of the room by Sheriff Branche. 

At the July 8 community meeting, Horizon Solar was given the opportunity to make a lengthy presentation of its plans to build its two 450-acre solar installations. After the presentation, UDO consultant Petrosky mentioned expanding solar limits and off-handedly that efforts were underway to “tweak” the county’s high impact land use ordinance. 

Deborah and I and others were deeply concerned at Petrosky’s cavalier way of mentioning efforts to merely “tweak” this ordinance which has kept Warren County in the crosshairs since 2011 and which kept Deborah and me in federal court for five years with the county commissioners. You don’t just superficially tweak an ordinance which is designed to protect objectionable and unsafe industries. 

After the meeting, Deborah asked Petrosky about merely “tweaking” the ordinance. She asked him if in his work statewide and beyond he had ever seen a county that exempted high impact land use polluters from regulations altogether. He answered that he had not. 

She responded, “Then why aren’t you recommending to commissioners that they remove the exemptions and create regulations that protect the county from polluters? Isn’t it your job to recommend what is best for our county?”

Deborah and I are informed and passionate about high impact land use because we’ve learned the cost of pollution crossing property boundaries from painful, first-hand experience, from PCBs, and more recently, from an unregulated but legal ATV racetrack we had to drive through to get to our home. It was the reality of this racetrack and the pressure of public sentiment that moved Warren County citizens to finally convince commissioners to pass countywide zoning in 2019.

DEBORAH

We citizens learned more about the Horizon utility-scale solar threat in a July 23 Warren Record article titled: “Roanoke River Basin Association [RRBA] expresses concerns about Horizon Solar project.” In the article, Scott Murray, director of the Upper Reach program with the RRBA explained that the Association “Operates with the mission to establish and carry out a strategy for the development, use, preservation, and enhancement of the resources of the Roanoke River Basin in the best interest of present and future generations of Basin residents.” 

Murray cited River Basin concerns “involved impact to the environment (wildlife, soil erosion and runoff, air quality and visual impacts), as well as property devaluation and other economic and quality of life impacts on recreation, fishing, and tourism.” 

Murray further cited a 2025 Virginia Tech study that looked at data from 8.8 million real estate transactions near solar facilities, including ten in Warren County, and found on average a 7.2 percent devaluation of properties within one half mile of any size solar facility and a 4.8 percent drop in value for properties up to three miles. Murray concluded that the devaluation of more than 3,000 impacted properties near the proposed Horizon Solar sites would total about $38 million dollars, while tax revenues from Horizon Solar would amount to about $30 million total over the proposed thirty-five-year life-span of the solar facilities. 

As for jobs promised by Horizon Solar, Murray pointed out there would be only a few permanent jobs, and the solar facilities would replace the many jobs of workers related the agriculture and timber industries. 

Without substantial tax benefits and jobs, the question we citizens were asking ourselves is what could the underlying motivation be for county officials to open the door to mega-solar facilities? 

By the August 4 commissioners’ meeting, opposition to utility-scale solar was growing as concerned citizens continued to make the case to maintain the current size and spacing solar regulations. Murray also handed out Roanoke River Basin Association flyers that read: “KNOW THE FACTS About Large-Scale Solar.” 

In the August 8, Warren Record, Murray continued to build an evidentiary case in a letter to commissioners which began, “Lobbying efforts to expand the size constraint and eliminate spacing requirements between large-scale solar projects (LSS) pose a serious threat to health, safety, and the welfare of Warren County residents. We ask that you pump the brakes while you consider the total effects and potential for the impacts on the existing tax base as you deliberate in your decision on these issues.” 

In the same issue of the paper, Warren County landowner and Wake Forest resident Man Leete, made a case for why selling his family’s land to Horizon Solar was a good thing. He said solar restrictions were “outdated,” and there was “a better path forward.” He said the “current ordinance is unfair,” there would be “economic benefits without a burden,” and Horizon would be “preserving farmland and rural character;”  and there was a risk to the county if it did nothing to change the current regulations. He called for “fairness and balance.”

Also, in the August 8 Warren Record is a quarter-page ad, where Horizon Solar worked its public relations angle, inviting Warren County residents to stop by a 3:00 - 6:00 coffee hour to meet the team and learn more about their projects, using snacks, beverages, and bird house give-aways as incentives. 

We knew that Horizon has deep pockets, and we had to make our position clear. So, some of us decided to send our own public relations message during the Horizon coffee-hour. In the August 15 Warren Record, a front-page photo featured a group of citizens holding signs during the coffee hour in front of Horizon’s office. The caption reads: “CITIZENS PROTEST AGAINST LARGE-SCALE SOLAR PROJECTS.” 

KEN

Featured in the following week’s August 15 paper was an article titled: “Voices of Warren County Town Hall Meeting focuses on solar project.” Voices is a local advocacy group that allows citizens to address topics that are timely and relevant to the community. At the meeting, guest speaker Scott Murray continued to caution that if the current solar regulations were lifted, there would be a flood of utility-scale solar installations, and the impact would be great, including property devaluation. 

Guest speaker James Arrington, III, a member of the Warren County Economic Development Commission, recommended that the Commission “advocate maintaining and strengthening the current policies of restrictions to large commercial solar projects, and instead focus on small-scale solar projects to help the county and local residents.”

Roger Lynch, a Warren County native and registered forester, was also a guest speaker who addressed how utility-scale solar would adversely impact the timber industry, which “represents a form of multi-purpose land stewardship.” Lynch cautioned that it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars per acre to convert property used for solar farms back to agricultural use.”

Deborah and I were also guest speakers. She pointed out that large-scale solar would attract electricity and water-consuming data centers and that we needed to work together to protect the county. I asked, “What if they established a foothold and had intentions to expand? They would keep expanding, devalue properties, data centers would continue to grow.”

An audience member introduced himself as a former military pilot who had experienced turbulence when flying over large solar farms. He explained these microbursts were likely due to the differences in temperatures caused by the heat generated from solar panels being near the cooler lake waters. He did not mention that solar panels only capture about 20-25% of the sun’s energy, and the rest escapes, heating up the area so that birds either fly around solar installations in hot weather, or they risk being fried.

On September 17, the Warren Record published an OpEd by Scott Murray titled, “The tipping point,” that began, “The Warren County commissioners face a difficult question and one that will define their legacy and the face of the county for decades to come. On the one hand, landowners who are promised long-term leases and financial gains to cover their land with solar panels, don’t understand why they can’t do as they please with their land while refusing to acknowledge the negative impacts on their neighbors, the environment, and the future of the county.”

Murray continued, “Driven by the unprecedented growth of metropolitan areas and by large industry with an insatiable need for power and cheap land, the power companies and the data centers target lands where they can create massive facilities at the lowest possible cost. Their crosshairs often land in Tier-1 [economically distressed] counties such as Warren where land values are low, populations are sparse, and residents are uninformed and face challenges to mount any significant form of resistance to the onslaught.”

Murray explained: “We are at a tipping point” because the state’s 2024 Senate Bill 382 prevents municipalities and counties from imposing stricter limitations on land use once the limitations are allowed. This means that if commissioners vote to lift the current solar restrictions and “open the floodgate to utility-scale solar, there is no turning back.”

In the same edition of the paper is an article titled, “Warren Ministries United hears presentation about proposed solar project.” The article is accompanied by a large photo of Reverend Mark Wethington as he smiles and shakes hands with local Horizon representative Neil Robertson who is handing him a check.

DEBORAH

On September 18, citizens held another Voices Public Forum, this time at the Lake Gaston Lutheran Church where Murray and Lynch continued to share facts about the impacts of utility-scale solar on property values and on the agricultural and timber industries. I presented a powerpoint presentation that showed more graphically the enormity of mega-solar, and I highlighted the threat of hyper-scale AI data centers. 

In the presentation, I used football fields to illustrate the magnitude of mega solar. I calculated that the current 150-acre solar limit is equivalent to about 113 football fields. Looking at that current limit — 113 football fields is massive enough.

I then calculated that the 526-acre Hawtree Creek Solar facility is about the size of 400 football fields and that Horizon’s two proposed adjacent 450-acre sites would be equivalent to about 680 football fields. The combined acreage would be 1,426 acres, a total of about 1,080 football fields all located in close proximity along the electric grid. 

Next, I quoted from an article titled, “How much solar power would it actually take to power a hyper-scale data center?” “A 100 mega watt data center would need a 1,446 acre solar farm which is about the size of 1,095 football fields.” 

I asked, “Is it a coincidence that this total projected solar power acreage at Lake Gaston is nearly identical to the solar acreage needed to power a 100 mega watt hyper-sale data center for AI and cryptocurrency? 

The last guest speaker was Ann Moore, a math teacher from neighboring Mecklenburg County, Virginia, who was invited to speak because she knows first-hand what it is to live with acres of solar football fields around her home, the result of unchecked industrial solar regulations in her county. Moore described how utility-scale solar had impacted her quality of life as she enumerated the negative impacts of mega solar and described the dangers solar panels pose, especially as they are damaged and decommissioned, naming aluminum, copper, silver, lead, cadmium, selenium, nickel, zinc and more. 

Knowing that citizens had to keep the solar issue front and center, the plan was to continue to have something written in nearly every edition of the Warren Record. In the September 24th edition, I detailed the Voices Town Hall Public Forum in a letter titled: “Close the door to Horizon and industrial solar: Concerned citizens meet to inform the public.”

Some of us also decided to erect a new 4’x8’ sign at the entrance to the county’s only grocery store, Food Lion, on property owned by Carol Limer Bland whom we have known since 1978 when we formed Warren County Citizens Concerned About PCBs. Together, we had erected a sign in 2013 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the 1982 PCB protest movement, and in 2022, Ken and I put a banner on the sign introducing this “Our Road to Walk” podcast series. 

Meanwhile, as citizen put up 150 “No Mega Solar” yard signs across the county and talked with folks about putting up the large one at the Limer property Food Lion entrance, someone who talked to someone who heard the idea must have thought that removing the 4’x8’ plywood sign, posts and all, would deter us. It did not. 

After we reported the theft to the Sheriff’s Department, we then built a new sign, dug new post holes, and had a banner printed which reads: “ — WC Commissioners — Close the Door to Horizon and Industrial-Scale Solar:  Protect our Warren County Lands and Future!  — DO THE RIGHT THING!” We also put up no-trespassing signs as well. 

KEN

We didn’t let up on our letters to the Warren Record. In a September 27 letter Deborah wrote: "Industrial-scale solar for Warren County isn’t about reducing carbon emissions and giving to the community. It’s about powering data centers that require massive amounts of electricity and water, contaminate area waters, create health-damaging incessant noise and light, and radically drive up the cost of electricity for consumers.”

An October 1st article in the Warren Record covered the county’s September 24th zoning code committee meeting where consultant Petrosky explained that no concrete decisions had been made, even as he continued to outline the potential for larger solar installations with reduced spacing requirements. 

The questions became obvious. Since public sentiment continued to be overwhelmingly against utility-scale solar, why wasn’t that reflected in the UDO solar draft? What was the point of UDO updates and input from the public if Petrosky — backed by Administrator Bloomer — continued to propose increasing the size of solar fields and allowing them to be spaced closer?

The elephant-in-the-room questions are: If Petrosky and Bloomer are paid by the county to draft the UDO, who are they working for as they continue to recommend lifting solar restrictions? Are they working for county commissioners who are elected to represent the will of the people, or are they working for utility-scale solar?

DEBORAH

In the October 8 Warren Record, an article was titled, “Solar installations, high-impact zoning dominate public comments.” 

The article addressed concerns I first raised about the absence of a high impact zoning ordinance for the county, and then the article addressed that I mentioned that citizens in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, stopped utility solar that would have powered a data center.

According to the article, “Ken Ferruccio said that county actions related to protests against the PCB landfill in Afton demonstrated the importance of environmental justice to the community.” Ken said, “Here in Warren County North Carolina, history shows that on matters of environmental justice, we don’t follow. We Lead. Why does it matter? Public sentiment is the cornerstone of democracy. In Warren County, people are above the county commissioners.”

Ferruccio continued,”There is no question where Warren County people will stand if there is an attempt to expand industrial scale solar and introduce data centers.

“Ferruccio was asked to end his comments after three minutes had passed. He refused, saying that he had only a little more to say from the comments he had prepared.”

He concluded,“Kerr and Gaston Lakes are the lifeblood of the area. We will do whatever is needed to protect them. Forums and public meetings are required. Both sides of the issues must be heard. Public sentiment will have the final say.”

Also, in the October 8 Warren Record is a letter titled: “Solar in Warren County: Small land use, big community benefits,” by Dylan Stickney, Horizon Director and Project Development Director for TED Renewables. Stickney claimed that opposition to utility-scale solar was based on “loud voices” and “misinformation.” He said that Warren County stands at a “crossroads” and that “we can embrace solar or can let misinformation hold us back.”

In the October 15, Warren Record, I responded to Stickney’s claims in a letter titled, “An Aesop’s fable analogy for Warren County citizens.” I wrote that Horizon Solar — the fox — “may have purchased an address in Warren County, but the people aren’t buying its cunning rap about the alleged benefits of industrial-scale solar, nor should county commissioners who are charged with impartially evaluating the evidence on both sides.” 

I concluded my letter: “Mr. Stickney, make no mistake. Warren County citizens definitely ‘do not let fear and misinformation hold us back.’ We let information based on unbiased facts lead the way, and no international corporation pretending to be a beneficent fox will ever be part of a community that informs our future.”

On October 30, 2025 county commissioners finally held a “Listening Session” which was covered in a November 5, front-page Warren Record article titled, “Community members pack Armory Civic Center for Solar Listening Session.” 

At the session, Consultant Petrosky  presented the updated UDO draft which continued to propose lifting current solar restrictions. He also presented added plans to set supplemental standards for data centers, a high impact land use category that had never been addressed in the UDO Initiative before we mentioned it. 

Petrosky explained that a “noise study would be required to demonstrate that the operation of a data center will comply with applicable county ordinances.” He mentioned superficial issues, including buffers, facade design, and fencing — but he did not mention the more salient issues, namely, that hyper-scale data centers create high impact noise that permeates the soundscape; they consume and then discharge massive amounts of chemically-treated water, and they use massive amounts of electricity and drive up electricity costs for consumers.  

What Petrosky did not say was that an unbiased noise study would need to be conducted and that current high impact noise is exempted from regulations, and the public has yet to learn if and how high impact land use, including noise, will be regulated, if at all. 

After Petrosky’s presentation, public questions and comments dominated the next two hours, as citizens overwhelmingly called on commissioners to keep the current solar size and spacing restrictions; to remove regulatory exemptions for polluting industries, and to pass a two-year moratorium on data centers to allow time for further study of community impacts. 

We don’t know yet if commissioners were listening to the will of the people, but we do know that Consultant Petrosky and Administrator Bloomer seemed to have been tone deaf. As they continued to push for lifting solar restrictions, they weren’t just dismissing the will of the people; they also weren’t listening to members of the Zoning Code Committee who had been appointed by commissioners to represent various local government-affiliated entities and to oversee the Unified Development Ordinance process.

KEN

On December 9, 2025, members of the Code Committee issued a memo to county commissioners and to key county officials working on the UDO Initiative. Deborah and I are including excerpts from this extraordinary three-page memo signed by Code Committee members who are representatives and chairs of the Warren County Economic Development Commission, Planning Board, Board of Adjustments, Board of Health, Soil & Water Conservation, and the Roanoke River Basin Association. 

Code committee members wrote: 

“As the Code Committee’s learning curve has evolved, a signifiant number of our members have come to a conclusion . . . . It is simple. We the undersigned recommend to the Planning Board and Board of Commissioners that regulations in the current zoning ordinance pertaining to the maximum allowable size (150 acres) and current separation requirements be maintained and incorporated into the draft UDO that is ultimately adopted.” 

“The code committee’s recommendations regarding maintaining the existing county solar regulations . . . have nearly fallen on deaf ears where Mr. Bloomer, Mr. Garner [the Assistant County Manager], and Mr. Petrosky are concerned. Their proposed UDO draft enlarges the permitted size of solar installations and completely omits separation requirements which would allow for construction of large-scale facilities end to end, side-by-side.” 

The memo continued: “The provisions included in the draft UDO that Mr. Petrosky presented publicly for the first time on October 30, 2025 are in direct conflict with the expressed wishes of the undersigned Code Committee.”

“Repeated insistence by both county staff and code consultant that the county must defend size and separation requirements that are part of the existing zoning ordinance appear to be designed to instill fear into the Planning Board, the Board of Commissioners, and county officials.”

In response, code members contacted Attorney David Owens, a “preeminent legal expert in zoning and land use” who had worked with the UNC School of Government for over 35 years and who authored multiple publications. Owens made it clear that there is nothing arbitrary, capricious, or illegal about the county’s current solar regulations. 

The memo ended: “It appears to us that both the consultant and some county staff are, in effect, attempting to shape county policy when that is the sole responsibility of the Warren County Board of Commissioners. The fact that a long series of statements and actions lead us to this inevitable conclusion is quite troubling.”

Quite troubling was that ten days later, it was clear that Petrosky and others were still not listening, even after the damning memo to commissioners from the Code Committee. At the December 19th UDO update meeting, Zoning Adjustment Board representative Joe Zeno said there was no need to discuss solar regulations because the Committee had spoken clearly in its memo to commissioners. 

But Petrosky ignored Zeno and proceeded to propose lifting the solar restrictions, offering to trade larger acreage for better buffers, but committee members countered, pointing out the truth that Warren County wouldn’t benefit from such a trade-off but that the utility-scale solar companies would. 

Ending the discussion, Code Committee members then took a vote, all but unanimously passing two motions to recommend to commissioners that they keep the current solar size and spacing regulations.

Petrosky’s face seemed to darken. It was clear that the Code Committee’s vote had fallen like a lead balloon on his considerable efforts to promote solar expansion in the county and that code committee members were not interested in supporting a utility-scale solar gold rush.

We citizens, on the other hand, were absolutely delighted with the vote. We felt privileged because we knew we had just witnessed in real time the democratic process working as it was designed. It was inspiring to see the Warren County Code Committee process play out and the vote members took on behalf of future generations. 

If people everywhere had witnessed the heated discussion which led to the vote, they’d want to happily support the notion that “all politics is local.” And they would have seen a much-needed affirmation for people everywhere —- namely, that informed public sentiment when backed by local representatives who listen to the people, still matters and has decision-making power. 

DEBORAH

The Unified Development Ordinance Initiative is far from being decided. Even after the people have spoken and even after the Code Committee vote was taken to recommend to commissioners that they keep the current solar restrictions, county commissioners will ultimately make their own final decision. 

Knowing the commissioners are responsible for the final decision, at the January 5, 2026, commissioners’ meeting, during public comments, Director of Horizon Solar Dylan Stickney made yet another attempt to persuade commissioners to support utility-scale solar. I wrote a response to Stickney’s comments in a letter that was published in the January 14 edition of the Warren Record. 

In my letter, I mentioned that Stickney claimed “the reasoning from the discussion” by Code Committee members was based on “misinformation and inaccurate property value analysis.” I wrote that he couldn’t substantiate his claim because it wasn’t true.

When Stickney resorted to name-calling in his public comments, describing opposition to utility-scale solar as NIMBYism (not in my back yard), I wrote: “Opposition to Horizon utility-scale solar is NIMBYism, the stand a community rightfully takes, based on principles universal to all communities, in order to protect itself against corporate aggression.”

I continued: “Stickney made the case that Horizon Solar would benefit landowners and the entire community. Missing in this statement is that the tax revenue gained would be more than off-set by the losses from property devaluation. He said that Horizon has a “corporate partner ready to bring a significant investment to Warren County” through its [proposed] projects. Missing in this statement is that this partner would purportedly be Microsoft which would buy Horizon’s solar electricity, possibly to power hyper-scale data centers. 

I continued in my letter: “Stickney then had the audacity to plead that Horizon be given “the chance to submit an application” for its utility-scale solar projects, implicitly asking commissioners to override public sentiment and the Code Committee’s thoughtful recommendation and to effectively nullify the democratic process. Stickney said that if commissioners don’t want utility-scale solar, “We’ll close up shop, move along, try to find another community to partner with and other landowners.” 

In my letter, I suggested that “Perhaps Horizon should not wait for the commissioners’ final vote on solar regulations which are just one part of the Unified Development Ordinance initiative that after a year is still only in draft form. How the county regulates high impact businesses that produce objectionable and unsafe pollution in the form of smoke, vapors, chemicals, light, dust, noise, and more has yet to be addressed, including hyper-scale data centers.”

Finally, I wrote: “Public forums must be scheduled so that citizens are given the opportunity to learn about and meaningfully discuss all these land use issues before a final UDO draft goes to a public hearing and then a final vote by commissioners. This process will take time, as it should, since land use decisions will affect the county for generations.”

KEN

In the same January 14th edition of the Warren Record, Upper Reach Program Director of the Roanoke River Basin Association, Scott Murray, wrote a letter titled: “Changing solar ordinance would open the floodgates.” 

Murray began, “Desperate and true to form, solar developers have once again misstated the facts in a blatant attempt to allow large-scale industrial solar to reshape the Warren County landscape. Murray said that once the regulation restrictions were lifted, it would “open a floodgate” because there would be “no regulatory means to prevent the expansion of mega-solar farms located end-to-end across the rural landscape of Warren County. That is their intent, so why do they continue with the false, misleading statements?” 

Murray ended his letter by saying, “If ever there was a time to pump the brakes and leave the current size and spacing [solar]controls in place . . . THAT TIME IS NOW!

Eight months ago, we citizens didn’t know that mega-scale solar poses a threat to Warren County’s greatest assets and its economies related to agriculture, timber, housing, tourism, and recreation. 

We didn’t know anything about hyper-scale AI data centers, much less how they pose threats to the environment, drive up energy and water costs, and further a technology take-over that potentially threatens freedom, privacy, and jobs. 

Nor did we know that we would be responding to these threats and joining others such as Scott Murray, who, it turns out, is a brilliant advocate for Warren County and the Roanoke River Basin. We didn’t know we would work with boots-on-the-ground leaders such as Lauren and John Miller, Roger and Carl Lynch, James Arrington, Barbara and Renaldo Espinosa, Ann Moore, and so many others behind the scenes, much less get the unexpected, awesome backing of the UDO Code Committee determined to protect the county’s future.

DEBORAH

What Ken and I did know is that when people unite their efforts, they can be a powerful force and that activism starts with gathering the facts in order to build a rational and strong case. What we did know was that when a community educates itself on these facts and sees for itself what is at stake, their relentless attention to preventing a problem can pay off. 

What we did and do know, as we have said many times, is that public sentiment is foundational to  democracy and that our local paper, the Warren Record, supports the expression of a free people. For this we are grateful. 

Ken and I have lived a life-time in the trenches of a war on the environment. Just two years into our first battle, Ken wrote and I edited, a 350-page manuscript titled: Toxic Aggression: Fighting on the Front Lines — The North Carolina PCB Story. We had hoped to stop the PCB landfill by exposing the ongoing history, but as literary agent Scott Meredith put it when he read the manuscript, “Your story is well-written and compelling, but unfortunately you’re going to have wait until the landfill is built to tell a story people will read.”

In other words, preventing pollution by addressing underlying scientific, regulatory, and political causes is not as compelling as stories about the often harrowing consequences of environmental harms already done.

We know that it’s difficult to identify with and acknowledge a threat until we perceive it is at our own doorstep. We also know that environmental threats are not only at our doorstep in Warren County. They are in the nation’s door, as environmental protections and justice are being sledgehammered on a regular basis, and fifty-years of life-consuming sacrifice by citizens, communities, and dedicated officials across the country are arbitrarily and capriciously being destroyed.

However, as water wears down rock, the will of an unrelenting people is a powerful force. And people who care about their right to live a safe and healthy life and who care about their children’s future will be unrelenting.

In our next episode, we’ll continue to share how the Unified Development Ordinance process plays out in our microcosm of the world, how Warren County officials decide to regulate utility-scale solar, hyper-scale data centers, and other high impact land use polluters. 

With so much at stake, will county commissioners come together, and do the right thing? Will they protect the county and abide by the will of the people and the recommendation of Code Committee members whom they appointed to oversee the UDO process?

Stay tuned. We’ll share the events as they unfold. 

We’ll also look more closely at why in just three months in 2025, $98 billion dollars in data center projects were blocked or delayed and why, “Communities across America — red states and blue, rural and suburban from Wisconsin to Arizona to Virginia — looked at the data center industry and said NO!

Please join us next time. Thanks for listening.