Ohio Statehouse
COLUMBUS — “Efforts to weaken Ohio’s clean energy standards began long before the EPA ever proposed the Clean Power Plan.
In 2011, Seitz co-sponsored a bill that would have repealed the renewable energy standards entirely. Seitz also sits on the board of directors of the American Legislative Exchange Council, which urges states to adopt its model ‘Electricity Freedom Act’ that refers to such standards as a “tax” and calls for their repeal.
In 2013, Seitz was the chief sponsor of Senate Bill 58, which aimed to significantly relax the standards.
When it became clear that bill wouldn’t pass, Balderson introduced Senate Bill 310, which would have removed any further enforcement targets under the standards by putting them on hold indefinitely until the legislature took further action.
After that bill likewise triggered outcries from clean energy supporters, a compromise amendment provided a limited time for the “freeze” and incorporated large sections of Seitz’s 2013 bill.
Gov. John Kasich signed that version of the bill into law in June 2014. At the time, his office called the bill a “balanced” approach.
In light of that history, clean energy supporters said they wonder about the broad range of Seitz’s 100-page draft bill, which adds terms that advocates see as “giveaways” for utilities.”
— Kathiann M. Kowalski, Midwest Energy News
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