(C) Ohio Capital Journal
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Why is the Ohio Power Siting Board allowing fossil fuel interests to shut down solar farms? • Ohio Capital Journal [1]
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Date: 2025-05-20
It is now well-documented — such as this news story by the Pulitzer Prize winning ProPublica about actually purchasing a newspaper in Knox County to use as a source of misinformation — that the exorbitantly wealthy fossil fuel industry in Ohio is seeking to halt solar farms because they are competition.
As Jake Zuckerman reported for Cleveland.com in March: “Ohioans and their elected representatives have killed enough solar development to roughly power the state’s three largest cities in the three years since state lawmakers passed one of the nation’s most stringent restrictions on new solar development.”
But this is now poised to take a quantum leap due to a case at the Ohio Supreme Court. At issue is whether the Ohio Power Siting Board will be allowed to grant what is essentially “veto power” over solar projects to a small handful of local officials.
If granted, it will provide an almost perfect vehicle for causing the demise of solar projects across Ohio.
Here is how this policy translates into solar rejections. When decisions are given to only a few individuals, there is no longer any need to persuade a majority of the public — the way a democracy works.
Instead the “blitz” can be focused on just these few, making abuse extraordinarily easy. Solar advocates are becoming placed in an essentially impossible bind. If local officials are already “locked up” by excessive lobbying from fossil fuel interests, there now appears virtually no chance of prevailing.
It is not an exaggeration to call this a de facto “rigging” of the process.
A notorious example of this process at work is the Grange Solar Grazing Project. A count revealed a full 80% of public comments were in favor. Yet when a handful of local officials expressed opposition, this 80% majority — and the democratic process itself — got over-ridden and the project was rejected by power siting board staff.
The Grange project was located in the home district of Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon — a primary co-sponsor of the openly anti-solar SB 52 legislation.
This writer is not privy to details, but it stands to reason this juxtaposition generated major pressure on local officials. The pattern repeated again on April 17: “In yet another case of the state’s hostility to utility-scale projects, state regulators have unanimously rejected a 150 MW project outside Canton because of organized opposition from local officials.”
Due to an appearance of favoritism, the solar advocacy group Third Act Ohio legitimately asked the OPSB to explain why such authority was being handed to local officials.
While completely ignoring the question, this group was referred to “criteria” in a statute to guide decisions, and directed to a link.
When examined, this statute contained no requirement that a project meet approval of local officials. Instead, the group found a separate statute specifically FORBIDDING such.
The very title is “No Local Jurisdiction.”
There is a strong appearance that this action is being “manufactured out of thin air.” If reinforced by the state Supreme Court, the stage seems set for a sweeping shutdown of utility scale solar in Ohio.
Why does this matter?
Ohio is not just one state among many. It is the fifth most prolific producer of carbon emissions. Failure in Ohio would combine with a nationwide failure promoted by Trump and the Republican Party to inflict drastic global consequences.
Science warns that crossing a climate “tipping point” will unleash a continuing spiral of increasing temperatures, with little public awareness about the immense scale of harm that would bring.
When our current 1.5 degree C increase spirals toward a 3 degree C increase, a band around the earth paralleling the equator would dry up from massive drought.
This area — called a “dead zone” because of its unlivability — would spread north and south. Tens of millions affected by collapsed food supply would escalate into the hundreds of millions.
On a matter affecting survival of life as we know it, the OPSB must not be allowed to become the proverbial “fox guarding the chicken coop” and tilt the process toward the vested interests it was supposed to regulate!
Gary Houser is a long time Ohio solar advocate, who also produces video resources on the frightening danger of a climate tipping point.
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