Posted on 06/16/2019 5:39:42 AM PDT by Lowell1775
The Ohio state legislature is considering HB 6, the Ohio Clean Air Program–a poorly named bill that will cost Ohio families money and harm clean energy job growth, all the while failing to improve air quality.
Most families worry about paying their bills, finding good jobs, and protecting the health of loved ones. HB 6 makes it harder for Ohio families to succeed on all these fronts— it raises electricity bills for Ohio families and businesses, does nothing to abate respiratory illness causing air pollution, and makes it virtually impossible to build new, job-creating clean energy projects in the state.
In reality, HB 6 is nothing more than an old-fashioned government bailout, paid for by the citizens of Ohio. HB 6 subsidizes two aging coal plants, one of which is not even in Ohio, and bails out two nuclear power plants at a $150 million price tag. All of this is done on the backs of Ohio families. Instead of lowering taxes for Ohioans, lawmakers are funding an anti-free market bailout by essentially adding a new tax to residents’ electric bills.
The truth is, these power plants can’t compete in today’s energy market. Cheap natural gas is putting pressure on both the coal and nuclear industries. No ratepayer funded bailout will alter this economic fact. Energy bailouts like this HB 6 are a nonsensical answer to the challenge of providing affordable, reliable, clean energy to Ohio families. All they do is punish innocent ratepayers and eliminate competition. CARTOONS | Michael Ramirez View Cartoon
As if industry bailouts alone are not more than Ohio families can afford, the proposed law also guts consumer cost-saving energy efficiency targets. The energy efficiency program has saved $5.1 million on electric bills since it was adopted in 2008. For every dollar invested, the program creates $2.65 in savings. And there are over 112,000 related clean energy jobs in Ohio. HB 6 would halt all this progress in its tracks.
HB 6 effectively makes it impossible to build new wind farms in Ohio, too. One provision allows for a public referendum on wind-energy projects, even after the developer completes the state’s rigorous permitting and approval process. Residents could vote to block a project that has already begun construction. What smart, innovative company will attempt to build new electricity infrastructure in Ohio, only to face a fatal referendum after millions have already been spent on the approval process and construction? This burdensome regulation, coupled with the oppressive, arbitrary wind turbine siting setback law, will eliminate jobs that new wind projects can bring to rural communities.
Conservatives and proponents of free market values should find it concerning that Republican leaders in the statehouse are the driving force behind HB 6. Republicans are supposed to be the party that slashes needless regulation, unshackles the free market, and lowers the tax burden for hard working Americans. Republicans are also the party of personal responsibility and environmental stewardship, exemplified by Theodore Roosevelt’s national park system. Recommended
The proposals that constitute Ohio’s HB 6 directly contradict these conservative, free market values. Subsidizing power plants that cannot economically compete is antithetical to the free market. Likewise is adding in new layers of regulation and bureaucracy that intentionally single out an entire industry, wind energy companies, and make it impossible for them to do business. Ohio conservatives in the state house will turn their backs to the Republican history of good economic and environmental stewardship if they pass this measure that hikes energy costs for families while increasing air pollution. Voters will not leave this act unpunished at the ballot box.
HB 6 accomplishes the opposite of what conservatism stands for by disturbing free market forces and complicating the ability of Ohio residents’ access to clean and affordable energy.
Lots of big money lining up against this......always makes me suspicious. What is other Buckeye's take on it?
...is a 126 page charlie foxtrot.
Coal is good.
One provision allows for a public referendum on wind-energy projects, even after the developer completes the state’s rigorous permitting and approval process.
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God forbid letting the citizens of Ohio have a say. Unaccountable bureaucrats should be the ones who determine what goes in Ohio.
/sarc
Not putting all your eggs n one energy basket is even better. :-)
Folks should read the bill.
It reads like something generated by a poliburo.
Yeah, we have something like 900 years of easily recoverable coal. You afraid we might run out? The coal basket can only be harmed by one thing... government and the climate change pseudo science fraud.
I’ve been carrying the torch for this bill in my local paper, the only one usually. We should be shooting for redundant energy sources, not cutting off our nose to spite our face. Closing down these nuclear power plants is not an option, if on national security grounds alone if no other.
One has only to have lived under the Ohio EPA’s Echeck for automobiles to see how changing requirements can have major effects and unbelievable cost for the average joe trying to make ends meet. Ohio farmland is being bought up by the tens of thousands of acres by foreigners to build some of these wind farms.
This is a BS propaganda article from the natural gas boys. Who wrote and passed the mandate of 8% renewable energy requirement at a time when we are no longer producing 100% of our state’s energy needs. Follow the money trail on that one.
It reads like someone was protecting existing coal and nuclear plants. The article reads like it was written by an investor for the wind and solar crowd. (Who of course, meticulously avoids government money /s)
AOC agrees with the article
One, the writer is a worker in the so called “clean energy” movement.
Two, she keeps repeating that coal and nuclear cannot compete economically and that government bailouts are bad. Skipping over how much money the clean industry gets from government, she misses the glaring hipocrasy. Coal and nuclear financial problems are caused precisely BY government. In that light it makes perfect sense for government to undo some of their damage they caused those industries.
And by the way, without Ohio coal mining facing people like Hillary, we wouldn’t have a President Trump.
There are a lot of commercials on radio for and against HB6 (maybe on TV too, but I have a fast forward button on it). The pro side talks about deregulation, jobs and how wonderful HB6, but never says what it actually does. The anti side talks solely about bailing out the "out of state" owner of nuclear plants.Personally I lean towards against, but that is my default position on laws: good legislation can be passed later, but bad legislation is nealy impossible to repeal later. I hate the pro-side's information free ads which imply good things will happen including kittens becoming fluffier and friendlier.
After looking at that bill I lean more towards against. 126 pages of references to previous laws. What a nightmare.
What it comes down to is that natural gas has gotten so cheap that it beats the hell out of nuclear, coal, solar and wind. And a lot of powerful people have money in those four and are going to want to pick our pockets to bail them all out. It might just end up cheaper getting a full time natural gas generator inside the house and cutting off from the electrical grid entirely because all the little subsidies and add-ons in the electrical bills will nibble us to death.
Cheap natural gas? Maybe where you live, lol. That was true before a certain North Carolina energy company appeared in Ohio. In 2011 my natural gas bill for the little old 40 gallon water heater was $45 plus dollars (minimum charge) a month and climbing. I ran a last century 2 burner gas light (natural gas) in my front yard during the 1980’s day and night and it cost me pennies to run.
And now we’re supposed to have this inexhaustible supply of natural gas. Why isn’t that being passed on to consumers. Once they have their monopoly created, I’ll go ahead and predict shortages, lol. The natural gas boys want to kill off coal and the nuclear plants in the state. They’ve already said it would cost more money to convert these to natural gas than building new ones. Meanwhile Ohioans will get stuck with the cleanup.
I don’t give a rat’s patootie what the article says.
I read the bill.
If that monstrosity passes, God help Ohio.
OHIO PING!
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“Ohio’s HB 6 Contradicts Conservative Values”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3757209/posts
Natural gas undersells their competitors until they run them out of business. Ohio has gone out of its way to run coal plants out with little regard for real health impacts from these plants.
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