Letter to the Portage County commissioners before renewable energy hearing

Editor’s note: The Portager publishes letters to the editor from the community. The opinions expressed are published not because they necessarily reflect those of the publication but because we feel they contribute meaningfully to the local discourse on matters of public interest.

Dear Portage County Commissioners,

My name is Stephen Howe, and I am a Portage County resident of four years, living in both Aurora and now in Franklin Township. I moved to North East Ohio for school and lived in Cuyahoga Falls starting in 2015. I met and married my wife here, we go to church in Kent, we bought a house here, and I learned to fish in these rivers. I care about this place. 

You are meeting on March 26, 2026 to discuss and take comments on wider bans on commercial scale renewable projects, namely wind and solar. Understandably, people throughout the county have strong opinions on if and where these projects should be allowed. From what I have seen through talking with neighbors and reading our local paper, the discussion has collapsed into a binary decision. Either we are going to ban commercial scale renewable projects in much of Portage County, or not. I would urge the county commissioners to take a more measured approach. Do not ban these projects out of hand, take the time and effort to investigate the possibilities and develop a plan.

Withholding a ban does not mean commercial scale projects automatically have a free pass to set up wherever and however they want within our communities. And we do need to approach this at the community level. So much of the conversation has been set around whether individual property owners have the right to sell or lease land to these projects. At the end of the day, a large solar or wind project will affect its neighbors and that needs to be properly accounted for. These projects can be designed to maximize benefits to the local community, and minimize its harms. 

I was recently on the island of Ærø in Denmark that has a small wind farm of six medium size turbines. While driving around the island I noticed a few yard signs opposing the turbines. I asked a born and raised islander named Carston about the history and controversy of the turbines. He said that there was some push back initially, but as part of the installation a profit sharing agreement was set up where locals could buy shares in the turbine and receive dividends from the power they produced, Carston is himself a shareholder. The local energy authority also maintains a fund that reinvests a portion of the energy profits into local community projects. Imagine if the residents of Shalersville received a dividend from the power generated in their township, on top of reduced electricity costs. We can be active participants in and receive real benefits from these projects, they don’t have to be something that is forced on us.

Banning projects is the easy way out of this conflict. It is also shortsighted and reactionary. In doing so, we would be depriving ourselves of so many tangible benefits that the people of Portage County need. We need a resilient diversified energy system, we need energy independence, we need local control of energy. We should be discussing the merits of commercial renewable energy projects. But those conversations become all the more difficult if we ban these projects before they can be properly discussed. If action is needed now, enact a moratorium with a limited timeframe. Whatever the case, the conversation needs to continue, we need a commission to investigate the costs and benefits of potential renewable energy project and establish a development plan for renewable energy. Now is the time for these conversations.

Sincerely,
Stephen Howe