Botetourt County, a place so proud of its history that people still talk about how it once stretched all the way to the Mississippi, has met the future — and doesn’t seem to much like it.
Botetourt has now become ground zero for two of the most controversial technological developments in the land these days — data centers and solar farms.
Google is preparing to build a data center in the county’s business park; there have been multiple protests, although there’s likely nothing procedurally that can stop the project. Google has bought the land, and it’s properly zoned. There are some state water permits, but even the Mountain Valley Pipeline secured its permits, so the opposition seems futile — though still passionate…