Commissioners to exclude most of county to renewable energy
Auglaize County commissioners have started the hearing process for wind and solar exclusion zone maps, covering all of Auglaize County after a final resolution was received in support of such a zone from German Township.
The public meeting will be held at the St. Marys Memorial High School auditorium on April 26 at 6 p.m.
All 14 township support exclusion zones. Township officials had been encouraged to talk with constituents and pass a resolution stating their position on exclusion zones after a meeting last fall. Many of those at township meetings voicing their support for exclusion zones are members of Auglaize County Townships United. The organization is grassroots response to interest in wind and solar projects from several developers, mostly on the eastern side of Auglaize
County.
Another grass roots organization, The Allen Auglaize Coalition for Reasonable Energy, has voiced support for potential revenue to local entities through the Birch Solar Project as well as job creation.
Mike Volpe, senior vice president of Open Road Renewables, said during a recent Farm Bureau presentation state lawmakers who wrote Senate Bill 52 did not intend that the law would created a unanimous exclusion zone, but rather provide a guide for where development makes sense. Open Road Renewables officials are currently courting landowners for a potential solar project in the
Moulton area.
Ohio Farm Bureau’s Jenna Reese, director of state policy, has said the organization has been against Senate Bill 52 as OFBF is an advocate for landowners rights.
Reese has said that the exclusion zones could find their way into other industries, such as natural gas and agriculture.
The Senate Bill 52 discussions have attracted the interest
of the Ohio Land and Liberty Coalition. Tony Zartman, a former Paulding County commissioner who represents the coalition, said many commissioners he’s talked to are large landowners who believe nobody has the right to tell them what to do, but in the next breath are telling him how they don’t like wind or solar power and don’t want it to happen on other properties.
He sees a contradiction.
“I’m firmly against (SB) 52,” Zartman said.
Commissioner John Bergman sees Senate Bill 52 as local control.
Commissioner Doug Spencer said township trustees have a better idea of what their community wants and that is why commissioners are asked them about exclusion zones before taking any action.