{"id":3704,"date":"2018-09-12T22:04:03","date_gmt":"2018-09-13T02:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=3704"},"modified":"2018-09-12T22:08:36","modified_gmt":"2018-09-13T02:08:36","slug":"the-conservative-republican-case-against-rockwool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=3704","title":{"rendered":"The Conservative Republican Case Against Rockwool"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last Friday on Eastern Panhandle Talk with Rob Mario and David Welch on radio station WRNR, the issue of Rockwool\u2019s proposed heavy industrial plant in Jefferson County, West Virginia came up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GLC7BOizCbA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhat\u2019s really fascinating culturally in this country is \u2013 you are either on Trump\u2019s side or not on Trump\u2019s side,\u201d said Welch. \u201cRob made a point the other day. Go out to Rockwool and look at the protesters \u2013 500 people. They probably all hate Donald Trump.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sos.wv.gov\/elections\/Pages\/VoteRegTotals.aspx\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jefferson County has about 12,000 registered Republicans, 12,000 registered Democrats and 12,000 registered independents. <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More than 10,000 citizens have signed onto a petition against the Rockwool facility. A good chunk of them are probably registered Republicans.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Take Chris Kinnan. He\u2019s a leader in the citizen group \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.toxicrockwool.com\/\">Jefferson Vision<\/a> \u2013 opposing the Rockwool plant.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMy own personal politics \u2013 I\u2019m a conservative Republican,\u201d Kinnan told <em>This Week in Morgan County with Russell Mokhiber.<\/em> \u201cOur organization is a movement more of parents. All of our board members have young children. This is very carefully a non partisan movement. This is about our identity as a community, what kind of development strategy we have as a community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-3705\" src=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/rockwool-300x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/rockwool-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/rockwool-768x384.jpg 768w, https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/rockwool-1024x512.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/rockwool.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOur historical arm of the county government didn\u2019t know about Rockwool\u2019s smokestacks. The opposition is broad. Harpers Ferry unanimously issued a proclamation opposing this. This is not a partisan issue at all from our perspective.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cPeople get it. This is not what the community has defined itself as. Jefferson County is growing. We have grown 50 percent in the last 25 years. We are fortunate to have rising incomes and very low unemployment. We are an exception in West Virginia in that regard.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cA lot of people have moved to the area for the promise of clean air, safe schools and a little bit of room to raise a family. And then all of a sudden here are smokestacks popping up with no real notice. We talk about being a wild and wonderful place that\u2019s the gateway to West Virginia &#8212; that\u2019s how people conceptualize Jefferson County. And this just cuts at our very identity. There is a very powerful response for that reason.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Is there a debate within the group whether to negotiate with Rockwool or just to hold fast and say &#8212; you are not coming in here?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe have one question &#8212; are you still building heavy industry on an apple orchard next to an elementary school?\u201d Kinnan said. \u201cThis whole process has been inappropriate and illegitimate.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rockwool\u2019s President Trent Ogilvie has said that the facility will be built in Jefferson County as planned. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Will it be built in Jefferson County?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI don\u2019t think so,\u201d Kinnan said. \u201cWe have the consensus, the opposition, the strategy and the energy to stop it. It just doesn\u2019t make sense. I don\u2019t think it will be built.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Is this a NIMBY issue &#8212; not in my back yard?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt\u2019s more of a not in my schoolyard issue,\u201d Kinnan said. \u201cThis has never been on the table for our community. It\u2019s not like we had an industrial park where they were going to build it. This was so out of left field &#8212; like a lightning bolt. It is so inappropriate for the community on so many levels. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy has pointed out that there are 15 or 17 vistas that will be impacted by the smokestacks. Harpers Ferry is obviously a national historical park. The state of West Virginia is 24,000 square miles. And we are somehow locating this facility, which will be one of the dirtiest in the state &#8212; by its permit &#8212; within six miles of the Potomac River, Harpers Ferry, our third largest state university at Shepherd, within four miles of both major school zoned properties where we are expected to grow, and then within two miles of four schools. It doesn\u2019t make any sense at all. It\u2019s an astonishingly poor planning decision. Nobody thought this through. Some guys in a room got together and said &#8212; let\u2019s do it, let\u2019s fast track it and get it done.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThis is a beachhead,\u201d Kinnan said. \u201cThis is the first phase for Rockwool and their plans. The Jefferson County development authority has talked about hundreds of acres in that same zone for heavy industry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last Friday on Eastern Panhandle Talk with Rob Mario and David Welch on radio station WRNR, the issue of Rockwool\u2019s proposed heavy industrial plant in Jefferson County, West Virginia came up. \u201cWhat\u2019s really fascinating culturally in this country is \u2013 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=3704\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3704"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3710,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3704\/revisions\/3710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}