A group fighting to uphold an Ohio county’s ban on renewable energy has significant financial ties to individuals and organizations that promote fossil fuels, as a campaign finance report filed this week reveals.
Last summer, Richland County became one of the more than three dozen Ohio counties that bar utility-scale wind and solar in all or part of their jurisdiction under a 2021 law that places extra hurdles on siting renewables — though not fossil fuel projects. Richland’s ban applies to 11 of its 18 townships, blocking new solar projects of 50 megawatts or more and new wind projects of 5 MW or more.
What makes Richland unusual, however, is that residents who oppose the new restriction banded together and got it on the ballot for the May 5 election, allowing voters to decide if they want to restore the right to consider wind and solar projects on a case-by-case basis. If successful, the referendum could offer a blueprint for pushing back on the local renewable energy restrictions proliferating around the U.S.
The main group urging voters to keep the ban is Richland Farmland Preservation. Its recent campaign finance report is telling: As of April 21, the organization reported only five contributions, totaling $8,000. On the spending side, the campaign has agreed to pay more than $12,400 to the Republican political advertising firm Majority Strategies LLC for text messaging and digital advertising.
Majority Strategies has known links to the fossil fuel industry. For years, it has been the largest recipient of money spent by The Empowerment Alliance, which promotes natural gas use and has pushed for policies that define the fossil fuel as “green energy.” The dark money group was launched in 2019 by former executives for Ariel Corp., a gas turbine compressor manufacturer.
Even prior to the filing of its campaign finance report, Richland Farmland Preservation appeared to have a connection to The Empowerment Alliance: The campaign group’s treasurer, Dustin McIntyre, is also the treasurer for the Affordable Energy Fund PAC, which The Empowerment Alliance set up in 2021 to support Republican candidates in Ohio.
Meanwhile, the chief strategist at Majority Strategies, Tom Whatman, has a long history of working against renewable energy. He emceed a November 2023 anti-solar town hall in Knox County, which is just south of Richland County. Whatman was formerly the executive director for the Ohio Republican Party.
It also appears that one of Whatman’s other businesses is the largest donor to the Richland Farmland Preservation campaign. He shares an address with and signed the articles of incorporation for Whatman Farms LLC, which gave the campaign group $2,500, its largest reported donation.
For some clean energy advocates, it’s disingenuous for fossil fuel proponents to campaign against the industry’s competition under the premise of protecting farmland.
“It reminded me … of this overall abuse by either front groups or political operatives for the gas industry,” said Dave Anderson, policy and communications manager for the Energy and Policy Institute, a national watchdog group that promotes clean energy. He noted that these organizations oppose solar and wind by framing arguments “around farmland preservation, while also advocating for lifting any limits on oil and gas extraction in those same rural counties.”
