If you follow energy in Ohio, you know that OPSB Staff is usually in a tough spot. They are part of a regulatory agency stuck between politicians and the public they answer to. Staff is tasked with reviewing complex energy infrastructure projects that often stir up local opposition. They are routinely tasked with making recommendations (which the OPSB universally follows in their voting) affecting the fate of gigawatts of generation representing billions of investment and thousands of jobs. So how did Staff justify the first recommendation “flip” that we can identify?

Enter Crossroads Solar Grazing Center. When OPSB Staff flipped their recommendation of approval to one of denial it meant gathering the receipts showing why that decision was unreasonable and not grounded in the facts of the case.

Here is what we know and what Crossroads presented in hearing: