A qualitative study is presented describing the connections between social change and environmental controversy in the case of a proposal to site a wood‐fired electric power plant in a nonmetropolitan community. The population migration turnaround in regions with scenic and recreational amenities functions as a vector for the changes described, including the ideologies of energy development and local control and the politics of experts and expertise. The threads of social change are woven into an transdisciplinary account of the controversy that should be instructive for scholars and practitioners alike. The essential feature of wood‐fired electric power plants is that they constitute large‐scale renewable energy development. The importance of scale in resource development and in the siting of facilities is emphasized. The alternative to such ideology‐based conflict may lie in increasing the opportunity for citizens to express their environmental values in the decisionmaking process.