Proponents to keep Ohio’s renewable energy standards appear
to face an uphill battle.
The legislative committee that will review the standards,
which are frozen for two years, is overwhelmingly made up of lawmakers who
voted for the bill that enacted the freeze.
Just three of the 12 committee members voted against Senate
Bill 310, which Gov. John Kasich signed in June.
The lone Democratic senator to vote for the bill, Shirley
Smith, D-Cleveland, is one of four Democratic appointees to the committee.
The bill freezes a 2008 bill that called for 25 percent of
the electricity sold by Ohio utilities to be generated from alternative energy
sources, half of that from renewables like wind power, by 2025. The law also
said utilities must slash customers’ power usage by 22 percent in the same time
frame.
The committee will review the standards and suggest any
potential changes in a report due next September.
The House of Representatives members were announced Thursday. Its six members fall along
party lines, with the two Democrats, Jack
Cera, D-Bellaire, and Michael
Stinziano, D-Columbus, voting against the bill.
The state senators were named last month.
Ohio is the first state in the country to halt its renewable
energy standards, although many have tried and failed to pass a similar
second-look at standards.
There’s no official timeline for when the committee will
first meet in public, although an aide for Rep. Peter
Stautberg, R-Cincinnai, co-chair of the committee, told me that it is
likely to begin before the year’s end.
Here’s the full committee member list and how they voted on
Senate Bill 310:
House of Representatives
Peter
Stautberg, R-Cincinnati, co-chair. Yes.
Ron
Amstutz, R-Wooster. Yes.
Lou Blessing III, R-Cincinnati. Yes.
Christina
Hagan, R-Alliance. Yes.
Jack
Cera, D-Bellaire. No.
Michael
Stinziano, D-Columbus. No.
Senate
Troy
Balderson, R-Zanesville, co-chair. Yes.
Bill
Seitz, R-Cincinnati. Yes.
Cliff
Hite, R-Findlay. Yes.
Bob
Peterson, R-Sabina. Yes.
Shirley
Smith, D-Cleveland. Yes
Capri
Cafaro, D-Hubbard. No.
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