Wind turbines a tough sell in historical coalfields of the two Virginias

With the wind turbine debate over with at least for the moment, and the mystery surrounding the large boom folks heard across Tazewell well - still a mystery - one might assume that things might quiet down a little bit in Tazewell County.

When the long-awaited decision was rendered last week on the so-called ridgeline protection ordinance for East River Mountain and Burkes Garden, a couple of people jokingly asked me, "What are you going to write about now?"

Maybe they had a point. I have been writing about wind turbines, windmill and tall structures for nearly 14 months. It's a story I'm ready to take a long awaited respite from. In fact, I'm not for sure I can ever look at a wind turbine the same away again from this point on. Maybe there were a few lessons for our region and our nation to learn from this story.

The first lesson would deal with zoning. Most communities should probably consider some form of zoning. I know some rural areas, and those with agricultural communities like Tazewell, don't like the word zoning. However, Tazewell County leaders, including Board of Supervisors Vice Chairman David Anderson, are now emphasizing the need for zoning in the county.

There was no zoning, or ridgeline protection ordinances, in Tazewell County or the town of Bluefield, Va., for that matter, at the time that Dominion and BP purchased more than 2,600 acres of land high atop East River Mountain.

Folks on the West Virginia side of East River Mountain are now taking another look at zoning. It was several years ago when Bland County officials decided to address a countywide zoning plan after several developers proposed a nuclear waste storage facility in the county, and later a proposed medical waste incinerator. New zoning rules were later placed in the books for Bland County.

Mercer County has no current zoning. However, officials say they are taking another look at zoning after watching the wind turbine saga unfold in neighboring Tazewell County. The city of Bluefield also is considering its own ridgeline protection ordinance. It's important to note that the town of Bluefield, Va., has already adopted an ordinance regulating the development of tall structures in the municipal limits of Virginia's Tallest Town.

The region also was reminded of its historic roots throughout the wind turbine debate.

While officials went to great strides to emphasize that wind energy wouldn't compete with coal, that argument was still a tough sell right here in the historic coalfields of southern West Virginia and Southwest Virginia. While lawmakers in Washington can argue that the nation has to go green, we are still mining coal down here in the deep south counties. And that coal is still helping keep the lights on not only here in West Virginia, but across the nation.

It's frustrating - and a little bit annoying to be honest - for local folks who grew up in coal mining communities across our region to suddenly see environmentalists across the country descending upon West Virginia to protest coal. Suddenly, the Mountain State is public enemy number one in the eyes of these environmentalists. That's truly unfortunate. They don't understand our region, our history and our rich heritage. Just about everyone living in our region has been touched by coal and the mining industry. Even my own grandparents came to America from Hungary to work in the West Virginia coal mines.

Coal has been around for a long time. Wind turbines are a somewhat newer and admittedly cleaner form of energy. Perhaps, if another site in our region had been selected for a wind turbine project, the public opposition may not have been as vocal. East River Mountain was somewhat of an awkward location for a development of this size.

So did the Tazewell County Board of Supervisors really make the right decision in their 3-2 vote to block the wind turbine farm planned for East River Mountain? I guess only time will tell. Who knows - maybe one day we will have wind turbines in every community across this nation. Maybe someone will build wind turbines on top of an old mountaintop removal site. That would really give the environmentalists something to complain about. They could then protest coal and wind energy at the same time.

But for now, we can only hope that the wind turbine debate is over.

We've debated this whole wind energy and tall structures thing long enough. Let's put our differences aside and get back to being friends, neighbors and a close-knit community.