MOUNT ORAB, Ohio — Randy McGuire drives across Ohio, counting out-of-state car license plates at utility-scale solar projects and talking to the hundreds of workers who drive steel piles into the ground, install solar arrays, and clean portable toilets for the state’s booming new industry.
He’s convinced that many solar companies don’t hire the required 80% Ohio residence workforce for construction, opting for cheaper temporary help and out-of-state workers who often do not speak English, and then lying about it to get state tax breaks.
“It's not helping Ohio the way it was intended,” McGuire said. “Good-paying jobs are hard to come by. That's what we were promised and that's what they should deliver.”
He is the marketing director for the Ohio Laborers' District Council, which represents 16,000 mostly construction and heavy highway project workers. His union is training workers on new solar skills, helping them to launch careers.
“They're stealing tax dollars from Ohio citizens when you promise jobs to Ohio citizens and these Ohio residents are not getting those jobs,” McGuire said.
His suspicions were proven right, he said, at one of the largest solar projects in the state, Amazon Solar Farm Ohio – Hillcrest, which sits on more than 2,000 acres near Mt. Orab.
“I don’t know what else you would call it,” McGuire said. “It’s theft. It’s forgery. It’s lying.”
The I-Team obtained a July 21, 2022 letter sent by the Ohio Department of Development to Hillcrest’s owner, Canada-based Innergex Renewable Energy, questioning the project’s workforce documentation and threatening prosecution.
“Hillcrest submitted evidence that misrepresented Ohio domicile for approximately 35 employees. Pictures of Ohio driver’s licenses were clearly altered to match the names and addresses listed in the employment report, with the same picture used for multiple employees on several occasions,” wrote Matt McClellan, assistant development director.
In that letter, McClellan revoked Hillcrest’s qualified energy project certification. The company was non-compliant because it could not prove that Ohio residents had performed 80 percent of the total construction hours.
That meant Hillcrest could not participate in the PILOT program, which allowed it to make annual payments in lieu of taxes to Brown County. The project likely would have paid much higher taxes as a public utility.
“Development will be coordinating with its partners at the Ohio Attorney General’s office and the Ohio Highway Patrol to determine next steps related to submission of altered documents to obtain a financial incentive in Ohio,” McClellan wrote.
But a spokesperson for Attorney General Dave Yost said it was never referred to his office for prosecution or enforcement.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol also wasn’t contacted, according to a spokesperson.
Five months later the Department of Development reversed its decision after it allowed Hillcrest to submit additional documents.
In a Dec. 16, 2022 letter, McClellan wrote that Hillcrest was now in compliance because it had met the 80% Ohio workforce requirement. He made no mention of the altered driver’s licenses, or if it was ever prosecuted.
“Once you have proof that something illegal happened … you don't get to resubmit,” McGuire said. “You should not get the money and, and honestly you should be penalized … that's forging, government documents. As far as I'm concerned, it's an illegal act and somebody should be held responsible.”
The state’s back-and-forth decisions also caused problems for Brown County Auditor Jill Hall.
When Hillcrest defaulted on its PILOT, state officials told her to tax the land and the project as a public utility. Then the state reversed its decision, forcing her small staff to redo the taxes on very short notice in late December.
“It was very frustrating … because all of a sudden, the Department of Development decided to ‘Oh well, we’ll let them back in. They didn’t mean to lie and cheat,’” Hall said. “It was just a convoluted mess and hopefully that won’t ever happen again.”
An Innergex spokesperson said the documents that led to the Department of Development’s inquiry were provided by a third-party contractor.
Innergex did not name that contractor. Nor did its attorney, Peter Solimine, in a July 25, 2022 letter responding to the state, which also laid responsibility on the general contractor.
“While Hillcrest fully appreciates that it signed and submitted the construction completion and employment report at issue, to be clear, Hillcrest notes that neither it nor any of its affiliates altered or intentionally misrepresented any information provided,” Solimine wrote.
In light of this, McGuire worries that Innergex won’t hire enough Ohio workers when it begins construction on its newest project, Palomino Solar, near Lynchburg in Highland County.
“They will do it again, but they will do it better,” McGuire said. “If you're a bank robber and you've been caught two or three times, you become a better bank robber.”
In many rural communities, solar is a highly polarizing issuethat divides neighbors and families. One selling point that solar companies use to persuade residents to lease their land, and local officials to support their projects, are the economic benefits for depressed areas, and the good paying jobs for locals.
Innergex spokesperson Guillaume Perron-Piche said, “Our code of conduct ensures that Innergex’s reputation for integrity and being a good corporate citizen is maintained through adherence to high ethical standards, and we fully expect that to continue on the Palomino solar project. ”
While McGuire said he doesn’t blame the Department of Development for the Hillcrest situation, he believes it exposes cracks in its oversight of the rapidly expanding solar industry.
One difficulty is that state officials don’t review workforce documentation until a solar facility is operational, after construction workers are gone, McGuire said.
“What we're trying to do is be our own investigators,” McGuire said. “Find the information, find the discrepancies, and take it to them. And hopefully, help them in the process of finding these people and these organizations that are actually cheating.”
He now videotapes cars entering solar job sites to see how many have out-of-state license plates. At a recent visit to a Union County site, he counted 90 Ohio license plates and 56 out-of-state plates from places such as Texas and New York. Most cars also contained multiple workers.
He also visited several Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles offices to see how easy it is to obtain a driver’s license. Often workers only need to show a utility bill.
“These temp agencies, they have recruiters, and they teach the employees how to get around the system,” and McGuire said many workers he’s spoken with said, “They, tell us how to get an Ohio driver's license. They give us bonuses for getting an Ohio driver's license.”
But Department of Development spokesperson Megan Imwalle said its staff members are properly overseeing solar sites.
“We are confident that we are handling all our program requirements in accordance with rule and law,” Imwalle said. “When we identify potential fraud or misuse, we engage our partners in law enforcement for review.”
DOD Letter to Hillcrest by WCPO 9 News on Scribd
Hillcrest Letter - Compliance Determination by WCPO 9 News on Scribd
