Airline road resident Deirdre McConathy may not get her request for a county two-year moratorium of battery energy storage systems on the agenda for Tuesday’s Henderson County Fiscal Court meeting but there’s a possibility it might be heard later.
McConathy said she had a meeting with County Judge-Executive Brad Schneider Tuesday as well as County Attorney Steve Gold and her own attorney, Laureen White of Anderson, Inc. McConathy said all left the meeting that a shorter moratorium on BESS could be a possibility.
In the meantime, she said she and Gold would meet in January to discuss possible changes to the county’s zoning ordinance regarding BESS, which the fiscal court passed in the summer of 2024.
Schneider responded to the Hendersonian’s request for comment with a statement, saying, “Henderson County Attorney Steve Gold and I had an instructive meeting with Ms. McConathy and another advocate, Laureen White, about the county’s BESS ordinance. We discussed the possibility Ms. McConathy could bring to Fiscal Court suggestions for amendments that could strengthen the ordinance, which any citizen can do for any of our county ordinances.”
In a follow-up question to Schneider, the Hendersonian asked if a BESS moratorium would be considered.
“A moratorium could still be a possibility but its length or circumstance has yet to be determined,” Schneider wrote.
McConathy’s farm abuts a site where an energy company wants to build a BESS. Yellowthroat Energy Storage LLC, a subsidiary of Tenaska Energy, submitted rezoning plans for a 35-plus acre parcel on Toy-Anthoston Road with the intention of locating a BESS there in the future. There has been no further action since the submission.
McConathy has been fighting BESS in the county since at least since the ordinance for BESS was approved by fiscal court.
At the Nov. 4 Henderson City-County Planning Commission meeting, McConathy provided a letter written by White that was read into the record in which the attorney asked that a two-year BESS moratorium be considered. White argued that fiscal court has approved moratoriums for both solar and WECS and the “time has now come for consideration and evaluation of a like moratorium for BESS.”
That night, the planning commission agreed that McConathy should first present her request to the fiscal court as it’s the accepted policy of the planning commission to have ordinance changes originate in the particular government body that will ultimately approve or deny it, which in this case is fiscal court. After that, she asked for a meeting with Schneider.
McConathy said she will read an email detailing the information of the meeting she, Schneider, Gold and White had at the next fiscal court meeting on Tuesday.
