After a lengthy discussion at the Board of County Commissioners meeting May 25, the board voted unanimously to rescind the temporary moratorium on solar farm development in Klickitat County.
This is part two of our series on solar energy projects potentially planned for Klickitat County. There are two corrections that must be made from last weekâs first part: the fences around the projected solar farms are eight feet high, not 14. And the Energy Overlay Zone is not quite 20 years instead of the typo of 80 years stated last week.
According to its creator, Klickitat Countyâs Energy Overlay Zone (EOZ) may be the only one in the entire U.S. Itâs that unique. And it may have sparked an equally unique situation in the county.
The EOZ is a kind of enormous zoning map for renewable energy. Started in 2001 and completed in 2004, itâs about 20 years old. Back then, originator Dana Peck, lately retired from his position as executive director of the Goldendale Chamber of Commerce, considered it a useful tool to determine workable locations for renewable energy projects.
This is part one of a series on the controversy over a planned solar energy near Goldendale.
Someone on the CEASE website has been busy with Photoshop. CEASE stands for Citizens Educated About Solar Energy, and the organizationâs website (CEASE2020.org) is filled with idyllic shots of scenery before and afterâbefore solar panel arrays and after. The after shots are Photoshopped projections of what the land could look like if CEASE doesnât have its way.
CEASEâs name reflects its desire: it wants a huge solar farm planned to cover the open expanses around Knight Road just outside Goldendale to stop and go bother someone elseâs neighborhood. Or, better yet, not to bother anyone anywhere.