Letters: Solar farm developments should be encouraged, not restricted by government
Etna Township should reconsider request to ban solar farms
Regarding the article published in The Newark Advocate on Jan. 19, "Etna Township asks Licking County to ban large solar developments," and later republished in The Columbus Dispatch, I suggest the township reconsider.
Solar is probably the most benign energy source available at this time. To be sure, every energy source has some degree of adverse impacts, including solar. Yet the impacts from solar are far less than other readily available energy sources. In addition, solar developments can provide many benefits to soil and water resources.
Agriculture itself can have some negative attributes, such as soil erosion/loss, as well as high runoff from stormwater carrying pesticide and fertilizer. Solar development can eliminate these agricultural impacts and enhance farmland by acting as a soil bank to build soil and sequester carbon during solar operations. Well-designed and managed solar farms will provide an herbaceous plant cover of native grasses and other native flowers and forbs which provide these many benefits while the panels are collecting energy from the sun. And, importantly, the landowner is collecting a steady and reliable lease income from the solar company that is not affected by the risk and uncertainties that one faces with farming.
Given these many positives, I believe solar farm development on agricultural land should be encouraged, not banned.
Michael Sponsler, Columbus
Ohio laws restrict solar while oil and gas wells have few limits
The Jan. 19 article published in The Newark Advocate, "Etna Township asks Licking County to ban large solar developments," and later republished in The Columbus Dispatch was a discouraging reminder of the policies adopted by the Ohio legislature in recent years that heavily favor fossil fuels over carbon-free renewable sources.
As the story states, the legislature in 2021 empowered boards of county commissioners to prohibit development of wind and solar facilities in all or part of the unincorporated areas of their counties. The law does not require the commissioners to make any findings or give any reason for restricting the rights of landowners to use their properties as they see fit, nor does it provide for any compensation to them for the taking of those rights. (Ohio Revised Code 303.57 through 303.62).
In contrast, the fossil fuel industry need not worry about any such county-level obstacle. Ohio Revised Code 1509.21 provides that the surface location of a new oil and gas well shall be no closer than 150 feet to an occupied dwelling, but that is the only restriction. No county or other local government entity is empowered to further restrict or prohibit oil and gas development.
As of October 2023, a meager 3.8% of the utility-scale electricity generated in Ohio came from renewable sources, according to information compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
This percentrage of electicity generated from renewable sources compares unfavorably to the progress being made by every one of Ohio’s neighbors: Indiana 13.6%; Kentucky 9%; Michigan 10.6%; Pennsylvania 4.3%; and West Virginia 5%. To keep pace with the competition, Ohio’s energy policy should be changed to encourage, not impede, utility-scale renewable energy.
Joe Winner, Columbus
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Letters: Government should be supporting, not restricting, solar farms
