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Utility CEOs get raises as companies roll back diversity, environmental pay incentives and rates increase
Gas Utility National Fuel Used Its Customers’ Money for Lobbying
Featured articles
Utility CEOs get raises as companies roll back diversity, environmental pay incentives and rates increase
Gas Utility National Fuel Used Its Customers’ Money for Lobbying
Richland County Commissioner Darrell Banks emailed a GOP political consultant that he would “not be surprised if there is a cross burning in my future” shortly after voting last summer to ban wind and solar farms at a meeting last year packed with local residents who opposed the ban.
Voters in the Ohio county will vote Tuesday on a referendum on the ban, which prohibits large new wind and solar farms in 11 of 18 of the townships located in the Ohio county. A “No” vote will overturn the ban, while a “Yes” vote will uphold the ban. Thousands of county residents signed petitions to place the issue on the ballot.
“Mission accomplished,” Banks emailed Tom Whatman, a chief strategist for the Republican political advertising firm Majority Strategies, after the Richland County Commissioners approved the ban on July 17, 2025.
“Great work. Thank you!” Whatman responded.
“More than 30 residents from the left present, a few Trustees,” Banks, a Republican, wrote back. “Would not be surprised if there is a cross burning in my future. It was interesting to say the least.”
The afternoon email exchange occurred on the same day county commissioners voted to prohibit large wind and solar farms in 11 of the county’s 18 townships at a 9:30 AM meeting, where dozens of local residents voiced opposition to the ban.
Banks attached a copy of the ban that the commissioners adopted at the meeting to his “Mission accomplished” email to Whatman.
Richland County has a history of racist cross burnings.
The Energy and Policy Institute obtained the emails from Richland County on Friday afternoon in response to an Open Records Law request.
Emails previously released by the county in April revealed that Banks informed Whatman about the commissioners’ plans to ban wind and solar about two months before the meeting last summer, as Canary Media first reported.
Whatman’s firm Majority Strategies has been paid hundreds of thousands per year by a gas industry group, The Empowerment Alliance (TEA), that’s campaigned for years against wind and solar farms in Ohio. TEA reported the money in annual reports filed with the IRS.
Banks now serves on an advisory committee for Richland Farmland Preservation, the PAC formed to defend the ban ahead of Tuesday’s referendum vote. The PAC reported that Majority Strategies provided it with text messaging and digital advertising valued at over $12,400 in its initial campaign finance report last month. Whatman’s farm in Belville, Ohio contributed $2,500 to the PAC in April.
Other emails obtained by EPI show Banks received e-newsletters from TEA that portrayed solar farms as harmful to farmland prior to his vote to ban wind and solar farms. Whatman previously popped up in neighboring Knox County, where he was involved with a group called Knox Smart Development that was secretly funded by TEA-backer Tom Rastin, a retired gas industry executive and GOP megadonor.
Banks did not respond to an email from EPI requesting comment on his emails and his relationship with Whatman and The Empowerment Alliance before the publication of this article.
The “No” campaign against the ban is supported by local residents and unions, Ohio Citizen Action, Property Rights Ohio, and environmental groups like the Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund and NRDC Action Fund. Opponents of the ban view it as an attack on property rights that prohibits local landowners and farmers from leasing their land to wind and solar farms.
Top image an excerpt from the ban on wind and solar farms adopted last year by the Richland County Commissioners
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Featured articles
Utility CEOs get raises as companies roll back diversity, environmental pay incentives and rates increase
Gas Utility National Fuel Used Its Customers’ Money for Lobbying
Featured articles
Utility CEOs get raises as companies roll back diversity, environmental pay incentives and rates increase
Gas Utility National Fuel Used Its Customers’ Money for Lobbying
