MOUNT VERNON — The Ohio Power Siting Board voted 8-1 early this afternoon to deny a rehearing on its previous approval of the Frasier Solar project in Miller and Clinton townships.
Township representative Galen Smith cast the lone no vote.
The OPSB approved Open Road Renewables’ 120-megawatt solar-power electric generation facility by an 8-1 vote on June 26.
Preserve Knox County Ohio (PKCO) filed an appeal on July 25. Seventeen property owners joined PKCO in the appeal.
Knox Smart Development filed its appeal on July 28.
Local representatives included in OPSB vote
Because Frasier Solar was grandfathered in under Senate Bill 32, OPSB voting members include a county commissioner and a township representative.
Smith represented the township. Commissioner Bill Pursel represented the county.
Smith declined to comment after Thursday’s decision.
Knox County Commissioner Barry Lester emailed the OPSB on Aug. 20 stating his formal opposition to Frasier Solar.
Lester cited concerns about loss of prime farmland, disrupting local ecosystems and undermining agricultural livelihoods.
He also wrote that his opposition reflects the will of his constituents, noting that he was one of two commissioners elected on a platform explicitly opposing the solar project.
Commissioner Drenda Keesee is the other commissioner who campaigned against the project.
Pursel said that although Preserve Knox County and Knox Smart Development put a lot of weight on the Republican primary results in their case opposing Frasier Solar, it does not equate to a majority being against the project.
He noted that Lester received 27 percent of the vote, which is not a majority. Additionally, he does not believe constituents will vote for Keesee again.
Lester was one of four candidates running for his commissioner seat in the primary. His competitors received 26, 23, and 22 percent of the vote.
He won the November general election against Democrat Chuck Rogers (72 percent vs. 28 percent).
Keesee received 39 percent of the primary vote; her two competitors received 33 and 27 percent. She was unopposed in November.
OPSB makes quick decision
“Once again, it is disappointing. We believe PKCO presented a very valid case for a rehearing and that what we brought up was just simply disregarded and not seriously considered by the board,” said Ben Dean of PKCO.
“Nonetheless, we are not really surprised by this outcome. We are not aware of any case in which the OPSB has approved a request for a rehearing.”
Dean said the standard practice for the OPSB over the last few years seems to be merely acting as a rubber stamp of whatever their staff has recommended in their reports.
“It seems to us that the members of the Ohio Power Siting Board don’t take their responsibility to evaluate the merits of individual cases very seriously and that they have delegated the responsibility of evaluating and assessing and approving projects to their staff nearly entirely,” he said.
He also noted the OPSB took 34 seconds to reject the rehearing request and did not discuss it in the meeting.
“That makes it hard to believe that they ever really intended to consider what we had presented in any serious way,” he said.
Dean said PKCO and other landowners have not had a chance to meet with legal counsel and have yet to decide what further steps they might take.
“Preserve Knox County and Knox Smart Development repeated the same arguments that were rejected overwhelmingly by the OPSB in June. They were rejected again today,” Craig Adair, vice president of development for Open Road Renewables, said of the decision.
“We are excited to partner with Knox County farmers to help meet growing demand for power. Fortunately for electricity users, the board’s decisions are based on facts.”
OPSB approves Fairfield County solar project
Also during Thursday’s session, OPSB members approved a 220-megawatt solar facility in Walnut Township in Fairfield County. That vote was also 8-1 with the township representative voting no.
The Eastern Cottontail Solar LLC facility will occupy 898 acres within a 1,500-acre project.
As in the Frasier Solar vote, the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s representative voted to approve the project.
However, he again went on record as saying that, “We vote in favor of the project, but we have concerns about the project’s impact to agricultural land in the agricultural districts.”
EDF Power Solutions is the developer of the Eastern Cottontail Solar project.
