Weaknesses in Energy Bill Require Ongoing Vigilance
A state energy bill has been passed that includes annual benchmarks toward a requirement that at least 12.5 percent of electricity consumed in Ohio in 2025 be provided by clean, renewable sources. It also includes a strengthened requirement that existing supplies of electricity be “stretched” by reducing waste and using them more efficiently. Both provisions are significant steps forward, and environmental advocates who worked on their behalf are to be applauded. Credit must also be given to the leadership demonstrated by Speaker of the House Jon Husted (R-Kettering) and Rep. Jim McGregor (R-Gahanna).
At the same time, however, it is important that public interest advocates remain vigilant about weaknesses in the bill from the beginning and a new one added at the end. Although benchmarks have been inserted, the situation is clouded by new language requiring that the cost of renewables must not exceed by more than three percent beyond the cost of conventional sources. The hope is that utilities will make a good faith effort to employ the cost-competitive renewable sources that do exist, but only time will tell. It is also hoped that the penalty for non-compliance will be strong enough that utilities will be dissuaded from choosing the payment of such penalties over actual development of renewables.
Another concern with the passage of the Ohio energy bill is the explicit language that allows nuclear power and coal to be defined as “advanced energy”—therefore permitting and encouraging these sources to continue to be a large part of Ohio’s future electrical needs.
None of the serious hazards of nuclear power—described in-depth in the Dec. 2007/Jan. 2008 issue of EarthWatch Ohio—have gone away. Ohio still remains the state with the Davis-Besse nuclear plant which has come the closest to a Chernobyl-scale catastrophe in the 29 years since the Three Mile Island half-meltdown. Every plant continues to be a “sitting duck” target for a terrorist attack with unimaginable consequences. It continues to be the height of immorality to base the generation of electricity on nuclear power which produces the most dangerous and lethal waste product—radioactive fuel rods—that take at least 240,000 years to decay.
These irradiated fuel rods are the most intensely radioactive material on the planet.
The language for coal plants continues to contain a loophole (“economically feasible best available technology”) which can be used to allow conventional plants with only cosmetic improvements to be built. There is no requirement that a carbon separation ability be achieved first. It is totally unconscionable to allow any new conventional coal plant to go forward—such as the proposed American Municipal Power of Ohio’s 1,000 megawatt facility in Meigs County, Ohio. James Hansen, one of the most respected climate scientists in the world, emphatically stated in a recent speech at Ohio State University that new conventional coal is the single largest threat to the global climate. Beyond the issue of greenhouse gases, these plants also severely threaten the health of local residents with toxins and support the further blowing up of entire mountains in Appalachia through mountaintop removal mining.
A blatant “tip-off” as to the intention of these industries to push their agenda came within only one week of the bill’s passage. The Ohio Chamber of Commerce sponsored a conference in Columbus which promoted nuclear power as a supposed response to climate change, with Sen. George Voinovich as the keynote speaker.
The moral of this story is that environmental advocates deserve to celebrate when victories are achieved, but our eyes must remain open. There must be vigilance in ensuring full implementation of the efficiency and renewable provisions. There also needs to be equal vigilance in opposing the nuclear and coal industries when they falsely advertise themselves as “advanced energy” and try to push their way into the mix of future energy sources in Ohio.
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Gary “Spruce” Houser is founder of the Ohio University Eco-House (www.ohio.edu/ecohouse) and also working to democratize energy choices in Athens.