Most of the sourced material posted to this page is posted according to the FAIR USE doctrine of copyright law for non-commercial news reporting, education and discussion. Some articles we only show excerpts and, if possible, provide links to the original published material. Any article will be removed by request from the LEGAL copyright owner. This site is in no way affiliated with any organizat
ion or company. Any comments or statements by individuals posting on this site are purely the opinions of the individuals themselves and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the manager or creator of this site. Please Read carefully. - Management
SaveFranklinCountyTexas – with the tree logo – is a FB page maintained by a concerned group of Texans with a focus on environmental protection for Franklin County, Texas. (Beware other industry sponsored pages which mimic this FB page including specifically logos with a fortress). We seek to provide information regarding industrialization in Franklin County, Texas, with additional information covering Texas, the United States, and our planet Earth. We initially became concerned when leases were filed for industrial solar developments to cover over one-third (1/3) of the agricultural acreage in this small county (the entire county has less than 200,000 acres – 8th smallest of the 254 counties in Texas). This is a real concern; these leases are of public record and lands immediately adjacent to our county boundaries on the north and west are now under millions of panels and our watershed is already impacted. We join in concerns with our neighboring counties to the north where wind turbine installations are planned. We want responsible placement. We do not want to destroy the earth to save the earth. We want solar panels on rooftops and on canopies over parking lots. We advocate for expanded development of our state’s oil and gas resources with clean technology standards. We advocate for the newly developed modular nuclear energy systems. We want a clean reliable mix of energy resources. We do not want over 1 Million solar panels and 500,000 lithium ion batteries placed on our landscape and eventually requiring clean-up. We cannot abide this heavy footprint across our land. Nor can we abide the destruction of our agricultural economy and way of life when the implementation of utility scale solar is driven by payments out of our income taxes paid to foreign developers; this tax credit for solar, wind and battery storage has not been studied and our leaders must stop this destructive economic movement. If these panels supposedly will be removed at the end of the lease term, nature will not survive to occupy the barren landscape; we cannot advocate for solar nor wind. Our county has tested (October 2023) for the highest concentration of lithium in salt deposits under our land; the highest in the continental United States. We have a flurry of mining and production activity planned for this county. We want appropriate environmental oversight and planning before activity proceeds. We are not luddites; we recognize the importance of lithium batteries. But we want responsible regulation of this extractive industry. Texans and our local citizens will be paid. This is a small footprint. We welcome a regulated industry. Along our county’s western boundaries and extending into our county we have proposals for carbon sequestration through injection of carbon into zones deep beneath the surface of the earth. We are told that our county judge plans to bring a plastic recycling facility or other industry here. Something must surely be done about plastics. Regulate the industry. We want transparency instead of the closed meetings on all fronts held between first-name-basis foreign industrial representatives and our local leaders. We seek to encourage sustainability. To embrace solar, wind, batteries and green consumerism without considering the consequences powers an unsustainable way of life. (a paraphrase of the first-rate analysis set out in the film Bright Green Lies). We seek to inform. We encourage questions and we will host public forums. Join our cause and raise the alarm with local, state and national leadership. We want a mix of reliable energy resources. Help save our county, and save our land and all of nature. Save Franklin County is created and maintained to facilitate public opposition to the renewables energy industry profit grab now taking place across Texas and all of the United States. We want to facilitate communication among opposition groups in Texas and in other states. There are many such groups. We oppose the federal incentives which have unintended consequences and we do not believe that our leaders (at the local, state, and national levels - AS WELL AS agency leaders at all such levels of government) - that our leaders intend to allow American tax dollars to be paid to foreign investors who now reap the benefit of installing renewal energy industry projects across American farms, fields and forests. We endorse the efforts of StopSolarFarms and similar organizations: working to fight the invasion of industrial solar farms destroying land and lives. We want to educate the public. We do not believe that urban dwellers realize the harm they bring to the heartland of America by supporting these so-called renewables. At this time, we certainly approve of appropriate placement of solar, such as on rooftops (come on Walmart) and on canopies over parking lots BUT not placed on land where forests recently stood. We do not want the Danish Company Orsted blasting out the ocean floor to install wind turbines - probably killing whales but destroying the environment in any event. Or a French company, think Engie or the Italian company Enel - blanketing our land with solar panels and creating disruption for all of nature. We do not agree with the destruction of grasslands where birds now fly free and cattle graze. We want truth and not misinformation funded by the industry. These panel arrays do not really support the growth of wildflowers; look at the photographs of installations on the web. We do not want our national environmental organizations bowing to the industry; accepting huge donations and then spouting publicity regarding the benefits of renewables and the use of electric vehicles (Can we remind the Sierra Club that islands in Indonesia are being dynamited to obtain nickel for batteries; mountains are mined in Nevada to procure lithium; and look at the damage to obtain copper, manganese, and cobalt). Read our posted articles in this page. We need better technology and funding for nuclear while we balance in the use of oil, natural gas, solar and wind. BUT we cannot allow solar and wind (and their dangerous lithium battery storage units) to override the mix. at the cost of the environment AND at a true cost to American taxpayers and individual utility ratepayers. We endorse the efforts of Save Van Zandt County, Texas: Protect all of Texas and America from the unregulated renewable energy industry. As stated by VZ County: "These projects will destroy productive farm and ranch land, strip the rights of landowners for decades, depreciate surrounding land values, destroy roads, compromise public safety, and expose residents to toxic waste." We cannot wait for two years for the Texas legislature to meet. We must ask our national Congress to help. We must ask our courts to help. We must join together across America to protect our land from the onslaught of foreign companies rushing in to take advantage of the current incentives promoted by the Biden administration. Shortcomings in the federal tax incentive program for solar, wind, battery and transmission line installations have allowed foreign interests to qualify for tax credits (up to about 50% of investment cost at federal level); as well as state and local tax breaks (including county property tax abatements). Oncor is now building lines to serve the foreign solar developments; great. So, Oncor says their cost will be passed on to consumers who consume this green energy. So, we have coal power building solar and wind and battery components; installed in a destructive manner and then we have transmission lines clearing our forests. All fueled by federal tax credits paid from our pockets. Thus, Enel out of Rome, Italy (representative: Zach Precopia) and companies tied to South Korea, Bulgaria, and France. Companies seeking to install a huge substation with 100,000 large lithium batteries in a 20-acre concrete based storage unit about 1.5 miles out of Mt. Vernon up Bell Street east of town. We don’t know where the spent batteries go (current life is 3.5 years); we will have over 1 Million in a decade. Enel (under an LLC -Stockyard Solar) filed plans with Austin to install over 620,000 solar panels on a 5,000 acre tract stretching 9 miles along FM 1896 east of Mt. Samsung filed plans for similar installations involving over 5,000 acres stretching 8 miles with battery installations. Where do damaged panels go? They sure won’t go back to Seoul or Rome. We want solar, sure. On the roofs of houses and over parking lots; not over our agricultural land. And we don’t want industrial lithium batteries stored near our homes with toxic Chinese wastes poisoning our lands and waters. Check out the solar opposition page with a wealth of information explaining the problems which we face with industrial solar installations in rural America. Please call or e-mail commissioners and ask them to enact a moratorium on industrial solar developments until we have some hard answers and some bonds to protect our county. No law prohibits our commissioners from protecting the health and safety of the public; from protecting property values; protecting our water from industrial demands; protecting our roads from destruction; protecting our wildlife and landscape from devastation. Commissioners - tell foreign solar: We’ll see you in court. Obtain independent legal counsel; a lawyer not on a first-name basis with developers. We may never have to hire counsel but, if we do, so be it. Tell our commissioners: Defend our county. Adopt a moratorium on industrial solar development for the next six months; and adopt it now. Your public stands behind you. If a foreign developer sues to do business here; defend our county in court and stand up to these people. Stand up to this foreign land-grab. Contact Commissioners:
Charlie Emerson – cell 903-588-5417; e-mail: [email protected]
Jerry Cooper – cell 903-575-8439; e-mail: [email protected]
Scott Smith – cell 214-289-1052; e-mail: [email protected]
Toby Godfrey – cell 903-573-2198; e-mail [email protected]
