Rural Western North Carolina Community Protests 'Covert' Plans For EV Battery Plant

Authorized by Matt McGregor via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A group of residents in western North Carolina are protesting their region board’s catch of transparency over furtive moves to welcome an electrical vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing The residents believe would pollute their waters and ruins their phase countryside.

A view of the southeast shore of Lake James in Morganton, NC, from the Fonta Flora way approximatley 3 miles from the megasite where an EV battery plant could be constructed (Courtesy of Bill Connell).

In October 2023, the North Carolina state government allocated $35.8 million to Burke improvement Inc. for the acquisition of a 1,400-acre property on which to build an industrial megasite in Burke and McDowell communes.

Thought the all-Republic board of Burke region Commissioners has made no authoritative decision on applying an EV battery plant to be built within the megasite, Alan Wood, the CEO of Burke Development, alluded to the site’s possible for specified a project, according to a local media report.

Mr. Wood listed respective EV manufacturing plants sprouting up in the Southeast due to their proximity to a lithium mine in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, which a Charlotte-based chemical manufacturing Albemarle corp is set to reopen by 2026 with the aid of a $90 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defence.

Since reports surfed of the development, an organization called the halt Burke-Lake James Megasite (Stop BLJM) was formed.

A petition with 2,859 signatures is circular while halt BLJM members talk out in region commissioner meetings.

In February, Burke region manager Brian Epley held a Fireside Chat in consequence to the criticism in which he argued that there’s misinformation surrounding the task and that it’s a more minimal plan than what’s been broadcast by those in opposition.

He pointed to country trends that excel a needed for economical improvement while addressing the distinctions of the task itself.

Economic improvement within the megasite will make jobs and increase the taxation base in a country that will see challenges in the future with managing its workforce and population while making current issues with “pockets of power,” he said.

Great Meadows, LLC., ownership 1,400 Acres of land comprising 14 plots zoned for industrial, residential, and commercial use.

He said the largest parcel of land is 550 acres, 440 of which is zoned industrial, and the remaining 110 general business.

Out of the 550 Acres, the Commissioners decided that 165 Acres could be developed for manufacturing, he said.

“From an economical improvement lens, that provides more than adequate area to put the needed square footage there to make this a transformative economical improvement task to make the jobs that would be meantful to Burke region and to make the taxation base that would be meantful to Burke County,” he said.

This future improvement would consist of 30 percent of the property, while 70 percent would stay undeveloped.

This undeveloped land would be utilized for the buffering of sound and light solution, with area for setsbacks for stream remediation and “innovative stormwater retention” that would keep the water origin clean while managing a natural environment and wildlife habitat, he said.

‘Nature’s Playground’

However, halt BLJM members Aren’t Convinced.

Lake James is where tourists come to recreate and residents live for a reason: its quiet rolling hills, panoramic clear skies, clean water, fresh mountain air, and agrarian community—unlike the more popular cities of Asheville and Charlotte.

An EV battery plant would “devastate the area,” according to halt BLJM members who spoke with The Epoch Times.

And the Commissioners are making their decisions without any input from the residents, they said.

“It’s clear to me that it’s a boondoggle for individual gain of all of these local politicians, not for the benefit of these in the region or surviving nearby,” said Daniel Oberer, who owns a home in the area.

According to a study from the Foothills Conservation of North Carolina, the Lake James Environmental Association, and the Catawba Riverkeepers, Lake James is already “a major economical driver” for the region and home to Lake James State Park in the city of Morganton, which takes in “over half a million visitors anonymously.”

Lake James is simply a 10.2 square mile reserve with over 150 miles of shoreline that makes contact with the Pisgah National Forest.

It was engineered by Duke Power in the early 20th century to service as a hydroelectric task and named for Duke University benefactor James Duke.

“The lake is besides fed by and drones into the Catawba River, classified by the State as ‘trout waters,’ and is simply a popular paddling and fishing destination,” the study is set. “The Catawba River and surrounding subwatershed areas are classified as a ‘water supply watershed for the City of Morganton.”

A tributary of the Catawba River close Lake James called the Muddy Creek borders any of the plots of the large Meadows property, the study said.

Having an EV battery plant on the watershed that could drain chemicals into a water supply for 26 courses downstream is just besides risky, halt BLJM members said.

“We’re doing everything we can to halt it due to the fact that erstwhile it goes in, the area will never be the same,” said Mr. Oberer.

From Lake James tourists can see the tallest highest of the Appalachian Mountains called Mount Mitchell, which reports 6,684 feet above sea level and is ranked as the highest mountain east of the Mississippi River.

The area has come to be known as “Nature’s Playground” to locals and tourists alike.

The people fighting the improvement scope from locals who fear their way of life will be irreparably destroyed to those who are’t from the area but own properties there, Mr. Oberer said.

“We all have this common love for the area and common desire to defend God’s natural beauty, and to keep it for future generation to enjoy,” he said.

‘It’s Just a Bad Idea’

Bill Connell, who started the halt BLJM petition on Change.org, said the Commissioners have been “extremly covert.”

“They started this process well over 2 years ago and we knew nothing about it until last October, so we’re just defending oursselves at this point,” Mr. Connell said. “Now we’re looking into legal counsel and trying to get the public educated.”

Burke region residents have been kept in the dark, Roxanne Reef Fleetwood said.

“We go to meetings, we speak, and then the meetings are dismissed,” Ms. Fleetwood said, adding that the only ones who will benefit from the task are a fewer people in government and the landowner.

“The glaring problem with this is its location in the Catawba River bass for the Catawba River,” she said. “It’s what feeds our wells. It’s water that everyone drinks from. It goes 26 courses downstream. They can have all intention of keeping people safe but there’s no guarantee.’

In April, the U.S. Department of labour issued a study uncovering the South Korean SK Battery Commerce plant in Commerce, Georgia—initially celebrated for its advance in the Biden administration’s green energy initial—had exposed employees to toxic chemical joints even after they had suggested “potentially permanent respiration damage” in an October 2023 fire.

The Occupational Safety and wellness Administration cited SK Battery for 5 violations.

These vibrations included exposing workers to hydrofluoric acid, neglect to train them on gambling chemicals with respiratory gambling, and neglect to train them on breathtaking lithium battery fire.

Ignited by the Biden administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal, a battery belt is starting to loop itself through the Southeast despite a catch of enthusiasm for EV cars.

Accepting to the Pew investigation Center, about half of consumers study they are improbable to buy an EV vehicle, city small assurance in the country’s infrastructure to support them.

Reports of charge issues in utmost weather, long waits at charging stations, and car malfunctions have slowed the EV industry’s advancement since the Biden administration’s war on carbon emissions that schools who questions the communicative argue is erroneously blamed for what others believe to be climate change.

In addition to an EV battery plant, a Norfolk confederate rail line would request to be constructed to the plant that would pass close residents’ homes and wetlands, presumably carrying lithium and another chemical elements, Ms. Fleetwood said.

The railroad company has a mediocre safety record, which includes its 2022 derailment leading to a chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio, Ms. Fleetwood said.

Accepting to a 2023 report, Norfolk confederate has seen an average of 163.6 derailments and 2.9 gambling material releases anonymously.

“You can’t keep your water clean with a rail line that has a mediocre safety evidence that may be transporting lithium,” Ms. Fleetwood said. “And you can’t have tourism if the mill is at your gateway to this massive amount of unspoiled beautiful land which acts as a filter cleaning the water moving into the Catawba River. It’s just a bad idea.”

Then there are the chemical elements—cadmium, lithium, magnetium, and cobalt—that must be expelled through the vent systems into the air and back into the ground, she said, which will eventual find itself in the groundwater.

There are better ways for the Commissioners to invest the taxpayers’ money, she said, specified as spreading it through the region to facilitate the tourism manufacture that runs what the EV plant would make without harming the environment or changing the character of the region.

“We are known for tourism and if this site is developed, all of that will go away,” Ms. Fleetwood said.

‘Why All of This Conception?’

Joanna Kentch, another halt BLJM member, has respective questions related to the ethics of how the task has been handled, like who applied the foundation for the megasite, where the money came from, why the Commissioner president Jeff Brittain and region manager Brian Epley are on the Burke improvement board that took the $35.6 million from the state, and why it seems the Commissioners Aren't listening to the residents.

“Why all of this decision, not telling us precisely what they plan to build on that site?” she asked. “They are utilizing public funds and the taxpayers have all right to know what their money is being utilized for.”

Ms. Kentch said that since the October 2023 article allowed to the county’s ambitions for EV battery plant, the Commissioners have been back-peddling and that the $35.6 million is just the beginning of what will cost taxpayers million more to make the site “shovel-ready.”

“They’ve been trying to take back these incorrect statements which was the primary reason the residents of Burke region got so upset,” Ms. Kentch said.

Ms. Kentch said the Fireside Chat was a specified “dog and pony show” in an effort to frame the communicative around economical development.

“There are quite a few another ways to make jobs, and not at the increase of environmental disaster,” Ms. Kentch said.

In April, the commissioners rezoned the region to “common,” a proposal not recommended by the region planning board due to the fact that “the language was besides subjective,” according to Ms. Kentch.

The paper states that a general zoning territory “may be more or little restrictive” than general zoning.

“This means they can apply whatever they want, from residential to industrial, as with the case of the megasite,” Ms. Kentch said. “Now they can turn the recovering plots to industrial without going through the steps of getting public comment before applying a resonating application.”

Accepting to Mr. Epley in his Fireside Chat, generic resonating means that the Commissioners can regulate improvement standards specified as uses, buffers, setsbacks, and road access.

“However, Epley doesn’t comment that they can besides adopt dangerous access options specified as railroad spurs, dense industrial manufacturing uses, and another developments which would be included gambling and subject to public scrutiny under general zoning guides,” Ms. Kentch said.

For Ms. Kentch and another members of halt BLJM, the resonating was just another decision by the region to pave the way for an EV battery mill while ignoring the opposition of Burke region residents.

Ms. Kentch said the issue over the megasite has led to 2 longtime Commissioners getting voted out of office.

Stop BLJM-backed Republican candidates Brian Barrier and Mike Stroud won the primary election in March and now again the general election in November erstwhile the state will besides choose between Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and politician state lawyer General Josh Stein for Governor, Bringing politician Gov. Roy Cooper’s 2 terms to a close.

‘They Think They Just Know Better’

Mr. Barrier was born and raised in Burke County. He served in the U.S. Army before later becoming the owner and publisher of Blue Ridge Christian News.

He was fed up with large spending in government.

He ran a survey on social media to gauge residents’ view of the megasite task and found that out of 300 to 400 responses, “an overwhile majority” were against it, he said.

He said a government board’s function is to supply essential services, adding that beyond that, government officials hazard shifting their roles as employees who work for the citizens who covered them.

“The Commissioners have continued to build buildings, buy property, and oversend,” Mr. Barrier said. “I’m not saying everything they’ve done is terrible, but it’s not been fiscally reserved in providing essential services to the county.”

And like many local government projects, it’s done with “little transparency,” Mr. Barrier said.

He referenced South Carolina state Rep. Adam Morgan’s velocity in the government highlighting what’s become a greatdivide between politicians and their constitutions, who “want their taxation money spent on core government functions” specified as roads and schools alternatively of billion-dollar large corp projects.

“They don’t want us in here trying to play this government planning thing where we in our bureaus can figure out where the jobs should be, who should be employed, how much money should be allocated where in the private sector,” he said. “It never works. It’s socialism. It’s never worked anywhere before, so what are we doing trying to do it here?”

Mr. Barrier said he couldn’t have said it better himself.

“These people get selected and then they think they just know better what’s best for the citizens respectless of what the citizens want,” Mr. Barrier said.

If he had found that a majority of residents wanted an EV battery plant, he would have—despite his individual opinions—campaigned in favour of the development, he said.

But this isn’t the case, he added, and halt BLJM may be putting the Commissioners in a position where they will “be forced to listen.”

“I think they’ve brought up adequate awareness and they may keep adequate force on them that things will gotta change,” Mr. Barrier said.

The Epoch Times contacted Burke region manager Epley for comment.