The mission of the Friends of Buckingham is to protect the natural environment and cultural heritage of Buckingham County.
Solar News
Watch the webinar from Friends of Buckingham, recorded April 25, 2025, to learn from a panel of experts about the Dark Side of Industrial-Scale Solar. Please share this widely.
Earth Month –
The Dark Side of Industrial-Scale Solar
Industrial-Scale Solar in Spotsylvania County, VA
(Photo by Hugh Kenny. The Piedmont Environmental Council)
Solar energy must not come at the expense of nature or communities. But that is what is happening in Buckingham and across Virginia as industrial solar projects replace our forests and working lands.
- Deforestation and bulldozing that forever changes the land.
- Wildlife destroyed and habitats lost.
- Waterways harmed.
- Erosion and sediment to wetlands and waterways.
- Largest land-use change ever.
- Enormous industrial projects inserted into rural communities.
- Forestry and forestry dependent jobs lost.
We must change course. We must save our forests and working lands by putting large-scale solar projects in the built-world. Places like parking lots, rooftops, brownfields, and already developed lands. Read more about the solar issues of our times.
Scott Flood, president of Friends of Buckingham, speaking at our 10th anniversary celebration.
Latest News
Join Us in Supporting the Virginia Bottle Bill
Jaimi McPeek - Hi everyone! Many of you know me as your local environmental scientist, but I’m also working on something much bigger—I am the Legislative Director for the VA Bottle Bill, a proposed recycling refund program. Here’s how it works: When you buy a...
HB2438 Defeated – A Win for Buckingham’s Environment
Thank you, everyone who wrote and called Senators on the Commerce and Labor Committee. HB2438 is dead on a 7-7-1 vote. McDougle, DeSteph, McPike, Obenshain, Peake, Reeves, Stanley voted no. We appreciate their protection of our rural community.
Opposition to HB2438
Dear Senator Cifers, Friends of Buckingham is seeking your assistance to please STOP HB2438 (Solar facilities; local regulation, special exceptions) 1) Solar ordinance decisions should remain at the local level. Each locality has its own unique circumstances and...
SB1190 Successfully Defeated
The Friends of Buckingham and other concerned citizens flooded the phones of our local representatives. We succeeded in stopping SB1190, a bill proposed by Sen. Creigh Deeds, (D-Charlottesville), that would have wrestled away local control over the contruction of industrial solar farms.
TIME SENSITIVE: Tell Delegates to Vote NO to HB2438
A bill on the Virginia House floor would dictate solar ordinance to the counties. HB 2438 seeks to create a statewide solar ordinance taking decisions away from local government. If passed, there will be no limits on the size of utility-scale solar projects or the...
News
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Membership is free. Support us by adding your name and make a contribution, as you wish. United we can be effective. We stopped the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. We supported the ban on cyanide in metalic mining. We can’t do with without you!
Celebrating 10 Years of Successes
The Friends of Buckingham
10-year anniversary celebration and annual meeting
November 16, 2024
Use this link to watch the slide show of our many accomplishments from the past year.
(The show has many photos and may load slowly.)
Stopping the Atlantic Coast Pipeline
After more than seven years fighting the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, we WON!
Read about our successful efforts to protect the natural wonders of Virginia.
Media Center
Chris Landry’s documentary, Not On This Land, focuses on bout the remarkable people who stopped the Atlantic Coast Pipeline from being built.
Ben Price presents to the Buckingham Board of Supervisors 11/15/22: Adopt both a rights-based ordinance to protect our freedom from toxic trespass and a land-use ordinance. Start at 16:50. Stay on for our awesome public comments.