January 27, 2016
Ohio

Kasich: Ohio will go back to ‘unpalatable’ renewable energy standards if legislators try to gut them

Tom Knox, Reporter | Columbus Business First | Jan 26, 2016 | www.bizjournals.com

Ohio Gov. John Kasich says he’ll reinstate the state’s energy standards if legislators try to further cut them.

Kasich signed a bill in June 2014 that froze Ohio’s renewable energy requirements for two years.

In September a 12-member legislative committee studied the standards, enacted in 2008, and recommended they stay frozen indefinitely. That led to a strong statement from Kasich calling the kicking-of-the-can “unacceptable.”

In New Hampshire this week, where the governor is stumping for the Republican presidential ticket, Kasich told a town hall about the “battle” with some legislators over the clean energy standards. Some manufacturers told him they’d need to layoff workers if the standards, scheduled to increase until 2025, continued.

“So I told them we’d reset it,” Kasich said in Goffstown, New Hampshire. “But some wanted to basically, in my opinion, stop the development of solar and wind and even efficiency standards. They said, ‘OK, it’s good enough.’ I’m like, ‘That’s not acceptable.’ ”

Kasich touted the future of battery storage, but said in the meantime the state is open to solar and wind power.

“And if the legislature wants to gut it, then I’m going to go back to the goal that we had, which was unpalatable,” Kasich said. “Because I’m not playing around with this.”

Ohio has a mixed record with alternative energy, but states welcome the economic development aspects it can bring. Tech companies especially are proponents of renewables.

Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), which has major expansion plans for the Buckeye State, said it will draw power from a 100-megawatt wind farm called Amazon Wind Farm US Central in Paulding County.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2016/01/27/kasich-ohio-will-go-back-to-unpalatable-renewable-energy-standards-if-legislators-try-to-gut-them/