Research Into Energy Part of New Future
When tobacco companies, prodded by the courts and politicians, agreed a decade ago to put up millions of dollars to boost communities affected by the diminished sales of the former No. 1 agricultural cash crop, few saw energy research as tobacco’s replacement.
Yet, that is exactly what is happening — to the benefit not only of Lynchburg and communities in Southside and Southwest Virginia, but also potentially benefitting the entire country.
It’s an ambitious step that is just beginning to take shape.
As Media General News Service reported last week, the $32 million handed out this past summer by the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission will be used by four communities to build energy research centers.
At those centers here and in Danville, South Boston and Abingdon, scientists from Virginia Tech, other institutions and private businesses could work to find solutions to the nation’s energy problems.
Because of the presence of two national and international firms that work in the field of nuclear technology, the Lynchburg center would focus on nuclear research.
The center in Danville would take up bio-energy, while wind turbines and green engineering would be the focus in South Boston. Its location near the coalfields of Southwest Virginia makes Abingdon a natural for clean coal technology and natural gas.
According to leaders of the effort, the goal is to use the centers as magnets to attract technology and energy companies. Those companies, in turn, would transform the rural landscape from abandoned tobacco fields to a series of industrial hubs with a role to play in the nation’s search for energy independence.
