Blooming Grove Town Hall in Richland County, Ohio on Election Day. (Photo: Kathiann M. Kowalski/Canary Media)
This story was originally published by Canary Media.
Residents of Richland County, Ohio, voted narrowly on Tuesday to maintain a ban on utility-scale solar and wind power in most communities – a setback for those who had hoped the referendum could serve as a blueprint for overcoming local restrictions on renewable energy sources across the country.
There was a vote 53% To 47% in favor of maintaining the bans adopted in July last year 11 counties 18 towns. There was a turnout 30%, according to election results.
The rural district’s referendum attracted widespread attention because it was a scarce example of community members trying to vote to counter state and local restrictions on the location of wind and solar energy that mushroom in the USA in recent years. in Ohio, over thirty counties limit one or both types of energy, permit issued by a 2021 law. Fossil fuel and nuclear energy projects are exempt from such prohibitions and other obstacles established in the Renewable Energy Act. If Richland County votes to repeal the ban, it would be a first in Ohio.
The election result was a defeat for the local group Citizens of Richland County for Property Rights and Jobs Development, which first took up the issue on the ballot and then reached voters. The group argued that repealing the ban would attract jobs and businesses to the area while protecting property owners’ rights to lease land for the energy development of their choice.
“As a group of Richland County neighbors, we pledged to stand up to our elected officials and forced a national conversation about property rights and government overreach,” said Morgan Carroll, leader of the anti-ban campaign.“We did it with integrity, passion and a deep love for our community. This is nothing. That’s all.”
Campaign for prohibition was Richland Farmland Preservation, a group that demanded the amount of land needed to produce solar energy, which was inconsistent with preserving the agricultural character of the area. Darrell Banks, a member of the committee behind the initiative and also a Richland County commissioner, said of Tuesday’s results:““I think this is an affirmation from voters that their county trustees and county commissioners are working in the best interests of their communities, so we greatly appreciate Richland County’s support.”
Richland Farmland Preservation’s funders include organizations affiliated with individuals and groups who have done so promoted the gas industry. Emails released last Friday shows communications between Banks and a strategist at a political consulting firm that has done significant work for The Empowerment Alliance, a shadowy money group that promotes natural gas. Banks said strategist Tom Whatman is“family friend.”
Links“should be of concern to every Richland County resident, regardless of how they voted,” said Bella Bogin, director of programs for Ohio Citizen Action, a statewide advocacy organization whose volunteers helped Richland County citizens advocate for property rights and job development in the referendum. “This community deserved a fair trial, and the fight to restore it to the county is far from over.”
Despite the defeat, Brian McPeek, another leader of the campaign to end the renewable energy ban, emphasized that the margin by which she lost in the Republican county itself was quite tiny. “The most crucial thing we showed yesterday is that this was not a partisan issue.”
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