To the editor,
Knox Smart Development (KSD), a dark-money funded group that was formed just four months ago to misinform the public about the proposed Frasier Solar project, was at it again the weekend before last with yet another dark-money funded misinformation campaign targeting local Knox County residents.
KSD paid professional speakers from Michigan and Texas with ties to the fossil fuel industry to come to Knox County and tell local landowners what they should do with their land.
One speaker claimed disbelief in the Knox County Commissioners’ assertion that there is both support and opposition to the Frasier Solar project.
However, a review of the OPSB docket of public comments both against and for the project shows that commenters from Knox County are roughly split in their views on the project, with approximately half supporting Frasier Solar.
Another speaker overstated the loss of farmland in Ohio in 2022 by roughly 100,000 acres, which is more land than would be needed to host every proposed solar project in the entire state.
The speaker glossed over the fact that the 400,000 acres of farmland lost in Ohio in 2022 (500,000 acres if you were to believe the speaker’s numbers without this fact check) was due primarily to the exact kind of residential development that would likely permanently claim the area’s farm fields without Frasier Solar’s long-term preservation of those fields in a dual-use solar and sheep grazing operation.
In fact, around 100 acres in the Frasier Solar project is already zoned for residential development, which means Frasier Solar’s dual-use sheep herding operation is the only thing keeping that acreage from being permanently taken out of agriculture.
Now in a last-ditch effort to scare our county about this well designed project, a project that will inject over $40 million in direct payments to our local schools and communities, KSD is texting mobile phones all over Knox County claiming that Frasier Solar is really a leftist communist conspiracy to take over rural Ohio.
Think about that…the dark-money funded group that’s trying to use governments at multiple levels to take away private property rights from local landowners is accusing someone else of being communist?
It would all be laughable if it didn’t involve spreading lies to neighbors, farmers, and seniors across the county, lies like “solar panels are toxic” (Fact: they are not) and “Frasier Solar will destroy our farmland” (Fact: not only will the land be preserved, but it will remain in agricultural production thanks to the full sheep grazing operation that will be helping a local Knox County company expand their sheep grazing operation for decades).
Hundreds of Knox County residents have voiced their support for Frasier Solar and against the dark-money funded lies that KSD continues to spread across our county.
It’s time for Knox Smart Development to stop lying to our neighbors and friends and simply admit that they’ll say and do almost anything to kill a project that they don’t like.
Find out the facts for yourself, and don’t believe the lies you hear from Knox Smart Development.
Sincerely,
Franklin Brown
Fredericktown