Big Plans for One Small Town

Grand-Thinking Va. Mayor Seeks Town's Energy Independence

By Sandhya Somashekhar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 12, 2007

George B. Fitch has always aimed high. As mayor of Warrenton, he has increased services while dramatically reducing taxes. He mounted a spirited campaign for governor in 2005. And years before, he founded the Jamaican Olympic bobsled team, whose story of beating the odds was adapted into a Disney film.

But his current plan might be his most ambitious undertaking yet: to make his rural town of 8,000 residents energy independent before he leaves office in 2010.

Warrenton Mayor George B. Fitch tours the Fauquier County landfill, where he wants to build a $30 million power and ethanol plant fueled by trash, agricultural waste, manure and other materials.

The keystone of what Fitch calls his "low-carbon diet" is to build a $30 million plant at the county dump, which would chew up garbage, construction waste, agricultural residue, manure and other materials referred to as "biomass" and spin it into electricity and ethanol.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031101563.html