Alternative energy advocates cheered a recent decision by
Ohio Gov. John Kasich to veto a recent bill that would have weakened the
state’s clean energy standards, arguing the move will lead to more investment
and jobs in the industry statewide.
But opponents, including residents engaged in a long legal
battle over a proposed Champaign County wind farm, said they have seen laws
repeatedly shift on the issue and hope to continue the fight.
The debate centers on Ohio House Bill 554, which lawmakers
passed late last year and would have made state alternative energy requirements
optional for the next two years. But Kasich vetoed it, meaning the state’s
older energy standards will now snap back into place.
A group of Champaign County residents have opposed the
Buckeye Wind Farm, a project that calls for hundreds of turbines across several
townships there. Terry Rittenhouse, whose home is located near the wind farm
site, said he believes the debate over the mandates isn’t over, despite
Kasich’s veto.
“I have learned the legislative process and that what goes
on today is not what could be happening six months from now,” he said. “The
winds change. New political parties come to power, so we’ll see. I’m not so
worried. I don’t necessarily think the mandates are going to stay.”
Rittenhouse and other opponents have argued the wind farm is
too close to homes within the project’s footprint. They have raised concerns
about property rights, noise from the wind mills and the shadows cast as the
turbine blades spin.
But the wind farm’s developers have argued they have worked
with state officials to minimize any impact on residents and that the project
will bring new revenue to Champaign County.
Even with the mandates back in place, both sides in the wind
debate also said the real fight in that industry is over setbacks from homes
and property lines.
Kasich’s decision will attract more investment to the state,
said Mike Koralewski, senior vice president for global manufacturing at First
Solar. The company’s Perrysburg, Ohio, plant is one of the largest solar panel
manufacturing facilities in the U.S.
“Governor Kasich’s decision will help ensure that Ohio can
leverage increasingly competitive, locally manufactured utility-scale solar
projects that customers large and small demand in greater numbers every year,”
Koralewski said.
Debate grows
The controversial mandates were approved by Ohio lawmakers
in 2008. They call for a quarter of the state’s energy to come from alternative
sources by 2025, with half of that coming from renewable sources such as wind
and solar.
The law also required utilities to encourage energy
efficiency, for example by offering customers rebates to purchase efficient appliances.
Advocates have said the mandates are important to make Ohio
competitive, and attract new jobs and investment in the green energy industry.
Opponents argued that they’re unnecessary and could lead to higher costs for
consumers.
Lawmakers froze the law for two years while a panel studied
its effectiveness. Late last year legislators voted to extend the freeze and
make the standards optional as part of Ohio House Bill 554. But the
requirements will go back into effect this year after Kasich’s veto.
The veto has angered some members of the Republican Party,
including some local legislators.
State Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, was a leading supporter
of the bill to extend the freeze. He argued Kasich wanted to appease “coastal
elites” in the renewable energy industry by allowing the mandates to resume.
The mandates drive up costs by forcing businesses to buy
energy from renewable sources, Seitz said.
“When a capitalist makes a product that consumers won’t buy,
he improves the price and/or quality of the product in order to get sales,”
Seitz said in an email to the Springfield News-Sun. “When a socialist makes a
product that consumers won’t buy, he gets the government to mandate that people
must buy it. It’s that simple. Because I am a capitalist, I do not favor
mandates.”
State Rep. Nino Vitale, R-Urbana, criticized the decision to
allow the mandates to go back into effect and other members of the Ohio House
and Senate who he said were unwilling to remain in Columbus at the end of the
year to override Kasich’s veto.
“I would have been happy to come back to Columbus to vote
yes to free markets and eliminate mandates … But that is not going to happen
because of a ‘Republican’ governor and a ‘Republican super majority’ in the
Ohio House that refuses to act and do what they told the voters of Ohio they
would do,” Vitale said in a lengthy Facebook post.
But freezing the mandates over the past two years put Ohio
at a disadvantage in attracting new, high-tech companies to the state, Kasich
said, and extending it would unnecessarily blunt the state’s efforts to lure
new businesses and jobs. He cited a study from the Midwest Energy Alliance that
argued Ohio had saved more than $1 billion since 2009 due to investments in
energy efficiency, thanks largely to the state’s energy efficiency standards.
Several environmental groups and businesses applauded
Kasich’s veto, including Whirlpool, Nestle and the National Wildlife
Federation.
In 2015, a report from Environment Ohio, an environmental
advocacy group, argued the freeze cost Clark County about $3.6 million in
energy savings since it was enacted, and could cost about $29 million by 2025
if made permanent. It argued if the freeze was extended, the Dayton metro area
would have missed out on electricity savings worth $251 million by 2025, enough
electricity to power about 175,000 homes for a year.
“Ohio workers cannot afford to take a step backward from the
economic gains that we have made in recent years, however, and arbitrarily
limiting Ohio’s energy generation options amounts to self-inflicted damage to
both our state’s near-and long-term economic competitiveness,” Kasich said in a
statement. “Therefore, this veto is in the public interest.”
Solar fares better than wind
The mandates were effective in attracting solar and wind
companies to Ohio, said Bill Spratley, executive director of Green Energy Ohio.
But both industries have stalled since the freeze went into
effect, he said. The organization promotes sustainable energy policies
throughout the state.
But solar has fared better than the wind industry, which
also faced stricter site regulations that advocates have said made it difficult
to locate new winds farms in Ohio.
Ohio is expected to install about 482 megawatts of solar
electric capacity in the next five years, about six times what was installed in
the previous five years, according to the Solar Energies Industry Association.
“The solar side has been inhibited, but it hasn’t been shut
down directly,” Spratley said. “We think there would be a lot more solar in
Ohio had the (mandates) not been frozen or halted in effect. The reason we
think that is at the national level Ohio got the reputation that it’s not
friendly to renewable investment and that really was the biggest impact of the
renewable portfolio freeze.”
Prices to install solar energy systems in the U.S. have
dropped 66 percent compared to 2010, according to the industry association.
Although renewable advocates argued the costs for wind and
solar has steadily fallen, the conservative Buckeye Institute said in a recent
policy brief that the mandates could end up costing consumers more.
“Inevitably, mandating renewable sources means higher retail
prices for consumers — who will ultimately foot the bill — because installing
new renewable resources is more expensive than allowing existing conventional
power plants to operate,” the report says.
James Groeber, owner of Ohio Solar Electric in Springfield,
has installed solar panels at the Springfield-Clark Career Technical Center and
at the Ohio Governor’s Mansion. Groeber doesn’t believe the mandates going back
into effect will have a major impact on his business in the short term, but he
said it’s better for Ohio in the long run.
“It will be a little bit of a benefit for the renewable
energy community,” Groeber said. “The cost of installation is continually going
down and we’re seeing more of it. It will probably encourage more businesses to
come and operate out of Ohio.”
Spratley also cited several major business that have
increased their commitment to solar energy, including Assurant in Springfield,
which installed a $7 million solar installation at its campus on Leffel Lane to
supply energy for the facility. National companies like Walmart have also made
significant commitments to solar energy over the next several years.
“Solar and wind have become conventional energy in a sense,”
Spratley said. “People still call them alternative energy but the reality is
economics have shifted.”
Fight could continue
On the other hand, new wind projects in Ohio have stalled.
Only two commercial wind farms operate in the state currently, according to the
American Wind Energy Association.
Kasich’s veto sends a message that Ohio is open to new
investment, said Andrew Gonn, director of eastern state policy for wind
association. But wind projects will continue to lag, he said, as long as
recently approved tougher requirements for turbines to be placed further back
from homes and other properties remain in place.
Ohio has already benefited from the wind industry, he said,
and could do so more in the future. But he predicted a fight over the setback
requirements.
“There are tremendous opportunities either way but to
maximize the opportunity Ohio needs to address setback reform,” Gonn said.
Everpower, the developer of the proposed Champaign County
wind farm, couldn’t be reached for comment.
In Champaign County though, Rittenhouse argued the tougher
standards are necessary to protect residents who live near possible wind farms.
He argued there has been enough local opposition that moving forward after a
roughly decade-long fight would amount to a hostile takeover. Rittenhouse said
he also feared further changes that could lighten setback requirements.
“Those changes in setback rules will put us back into a
position where wind turbines are infringing on private property,” Rittenhouse
said. “It’s my sincere hope our legislature falls on the side of the property
rights of all homeowners.”
Some wind projects aren’t a good fit for communities,
Spratley said, and those decisions should typically be made with input from
community members at the local level.
“That is a very local decision and I think it ought to be
made locally,” Spratley said.
He also predicted that the dispute over setbacks in Ohio
isn’t over. But in general, he argued even if the state kept the renewable
freeze in place projects would move forward in communities and businesses
throughout Ohio.
“The technology cannot be stopped and I don’t think edicts
from the legislature are going to stop it,” Spratley said.
By the numbers:
62 — wind-related manufacturing facilities in Ohio
1,001 to 2,000 — Estimated direct and indirect jobs
supported by wind industry
$900 million — Estimated capital investment in wind in Ohio
$1 million to $5 million — Estimated annual land lease
payments from wind industry
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