On the eve of a new legislative session, NAACP Henry County-Martinsville Chapter President Naomi Hodge-Muse is urging state lawmakers to consider the impact widespread solar adoption will have on smaller and less-affluent communities.
“That’s what people aren’t understanding,” Hodge-Muse said Tuesday. “The poorest people pay the biggest consequence.”
Hodge-Muse’s comments came a day after Virginia’s NAACP held an online conference to share its legislative goals for the coming General Assembly session.
“The Virginia State Conference NAACP will continue to advocate for and provide research tools, educational materials, and strategies in adherence to the program directives of the NAACP Center for Environmental Climate Justice to support policies and programs in the Commonwealth,” reads a portion of the organization’s legislative statement on environmental justice.
Out of the list of topics the NAACP put forth, including education, housing and economic development, environmental justice resonated most with Hodge-Muse.
While the NAACP goes on to specify the need to manage emissions and transition to a clean energy economy, Hodge-Muse expressed concern about utility-scale solar development, which she said has the potential to negatively impact communities.
“Solar farms are going up across Virginia, destroying acres … of land,” Hodge-Muse said.
Despite having solar panels on her own home, Hodge-Muse said she believes there is a correct and an incorrect way to implement the technology. Ideally, future solar projects should be strategically placed to minimize deforestation, she said.
Hodge-Muse said that communities like Martinsville and Henry County are too dependent on underground water sources for soil erosion to not be a consideration.
“People’s wells are already going dry,” she said. “If we continue to destroy forest land, public water is not common for every locality, particularly in rural areas. In Henry County and Pittsylvania County, there are few water lines going into the county.”
Hodge-Muse said the issue of tree removal isn’t unique to solar farms. She said data centers, like the one scheduled for Pittsylvania County, are also a concern.
In July, Pittsylvania County supervisors unanimously approved the construction of a data center, to the chagrin of many residents. Data centers are large buildings that house computers that store and send data.
Hodge-Muse said communities would be better off if state officials got clever with where they erected solar panels. She described a best-case scenario in which putting panels on undeveloped forest land is considered a last option. Instead, she suggested that Virginia’s lawmakers look to places like Germany for inspiration.
“We have … all of these roads with full sun exposure,” Hodge-Muse said. “In Germany, the Autobahn … it’s covered with solar panels. Not one tree needs to be cut down for these solar farms.”
