COLUMBUS — Catherine Turcer, director of Ohio Citizen Action’s Money in Politics, today asked Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to investigate whether the State of Ohio can recoup funds it has sent to the Columbiana County Port Authority for the proposed Baard Energy coal refinery. The Ohio Department of Development has provided at least $805,000 in grants and $4.5 million in loans to the Port Authority to extend purchase options and purchase property for the site. The owner of the second-largest parcel of land has recently been convicted of running a meth lab on the property, and his land is subject both to foreclosure and potential forfeiture, and the Port Authority attorney has noted that Baard may not want this land after all. The Baard project has been delayed repeatedly, apparently due to a lack of private investors. The letter also questions why the Ohio Department of Development gave the project $500,000 from the Job Ready Sites Program in December 2008 after announcing a month earlier that the project had not been awarded any of the program’s competitive grants.
– Catherine Turcer, Director, Money in Politics Project, Ohio Citizen Action
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