Posts that deal broadly with the physical, mental, and intellectual health of communities.

The Threat of Data Centers

It's becoming more and more evident that data centers bring with them threats to local environments and increased costs to residents. Stewart Acuff documents in this article how the Republican majority in our legislature is ignoring or dismissing these threats in their goal to put centers anywhere the industry wants. Stewart wonders if this is a government for the people.

High Wire Action

Electric power is delivered largely through overhead transmission lines. We put up with the lines because without them our lights go out. But as John Doyle explains, the huge thirst for electricity of data centers in Loudon County, Virginia is proposed to be quenched by equally huge (160 feet!) transmission lines crossing several counties in the Eastern Panhandle, including Jefferson County. That electricity will not benefit our people, but it will take land and devalue the properties it passes through. This will be another example of West Virginia giving and getting nothing back, but grief. John cautions vigilance.

Saving Rural America

West Virginia has given much of itself to benefit the rest of the country, but the rest of the country hasn't been entirely appreciative. Our state is seen too often as just a mine and now, when the mines are running out, as a lost cause. Jim Bauman argues that the centuries of outsiders taking have left West Virginians thinking that giving away our resources is the only thing we can do to survive. Or is it?