Interested Party Testimony of Erin Bowser, Environment Ohio,
Regarding Senate Bill 221
Thank you Chairman Schuler,
and members of the committee for the opportunity to speak with you today about
Senate Bill 221. My name is Erin Bowser and I am the Director of Environment
Ohio, a non- profit, environmental advocacy organization. Today I will focus on the advanced energy
standard component of Senate Bill 221.
Specifically, we strongly support the 12.5% clean renewable electricity
requirement and believe that we can and should make an even bigger commitment
to developing Ohio’s
renewable energy resources.
Ohio’s renewable energy
resources, technological know-how and extensive manufacturing, transmission and
transportation infrastructure provide Ohio
with a recipe to become more energy independent.
Right now approximately 87
percent of Ohio’s
electricity comes from burning coal. This dependence on coal for our
electricity supply has economic and environmental ramifications. For starters, a majority of the coal that we
burn in Ohio
must be imported which means that we have to send more than a billion dollars out
of state each year to import an increasingly expensive resource. In addition, Ohio
is the fourth leading contributor in the United States of carbon dioxide
emissions which fuel global warming. It
is imperative that Ohio’s
utilities begin to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions and diversify their
generation before Congress sets limits on carbon dioxide emissions. In economic terms this is important for Ohio ratepayers who
could shoulder the burden of utilities not meeting carbon emissions limits and
passing on that cost to customers.
Additionally, the impacts of global warming will increasingly affect the
quality of life of Ohioans statewide.
For example, more natural disasters such as the recent floods in Northwest Ohio that inflicted economic hardship on
homeowners, manufacturers and residents throughout a nine county stretch may
occur on a more frequent basis.
In environmental terms, our
reliance on coal has been a major contributor to soot, smog and mercury
pollution problems that has resulted in poor air and water quality
statewide. Progress has been made to
reduce pollution but we still have a long way to go in order to ensure that the
air we are breathing is safe and the water we fish and swim in is clean.
That said, coal will likely
always be a part of Ohio’s electricity mix but diversifying a little over time
with renewable energy in order to meet our increasing demand for electricity
would be a wise investment for Ohio. This
is especially true when you consider all of the benefits that developing
renewable energy would reap for Ohioans.
For starters, by diversifying
our electricity mix with clean renewable energy we can keep more dollars
in-state developing homegrown energy such as wind, solar and biomass.
Ohio has abundant wind energy resources. Attached to my testimony is a map recently
released by the United States Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy
Laboratory. This map provides evidence
that if we even tapped into only a small amount of Ohio’s wind resources that we could achieve
20% of our electricity from wind.
With regard to solar energy,
solar panels run on the light that lets you see, not the light that makes you
hot. The world’s largest solar markets
are in Germany and Japan – neither nearly as sunny as Ohio. Within the US,
New Jersey is the second-largest solar market,
with Maryland and Pennsylvania coming up quickly.
With regard to biomass, which
is derived from plant matter, crops and other non toxic materials is another
resource readily available here in Ohio. In fact, Ohio ranks seventh in the nation according
the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the
availability of biomass stocks.
Making a commitment to
developing Ohio’s renewable energy resources
will also present Ohio
with an opportunity to attract business and new jobs to the state. A recent report released by Environment Ohio looked
at the economic impact of diversifying Ohio’s
electricity mix such that 20% of our electricity came from wind energy by 2020
versus sticking with our current electricity mix and found that the 20% wind
scenario would result in a net gain of:
- 40,000 person-years of employment,
- $3.7 billion additional in wages paid,
- $8.2 billion increase in the Ohio gross state produc
- $1.5 billion dollars in property taxes generated to
county governments,
- $200 million dollars for landowners.
- And, would result in avoiding 170 million metric tons
of global warming pollution (C02), which is the equivalent to taking over 2
million cars off the road.
Ohio’s unique advantage exists in part
because of our extensive manufacturing base.
Although hundreds of thousands of Ohio
manufacturing jobs have left the state in the last several years the
infrastructure is largely still present.
Many of Ohio’s
rust-belt neighbors have capitalized on the opportunity to attract this
burgeoning industry to their state at least in part because they enacted
renewable energy standards. A renewable
energy standard is important because it demonstrates a commitment to developing
renewable energy in the state. For a
manufacturer of wind turbines or solar panels this commitment signals that
there will be a market for their product which is close to home. Pennsylvania
for example enacted a standard in 2005 and since that time Gamesa, a Spanish
wind energy company, established its U.S.
headquarters in Philadelphia and is expected to
create 1,000 new Pennsylvania
jobs. Ohio could establish a competitive edge for
new business and jobs by enacting a strong renewable energy standard.
With regard
to Senate Bill 221 specifically, we strongly support the 12.5% clean renewable
electricity requirement and believe that we could and should make an even
bigger commitment to developing Ohio’s
renewable energy resources.
Twenty-five other
states and the District of Columbia
have enacted renewable energy standards.
Attached to my testimony is a map of the states and their
standards. Most recently, Illinois enacted a 25%
by 2025 ALL CLEAN renewable energy standard.
Colorado and New Mexico recently doubled their renewable
energy standards to 20% by 2020. States
are enacting and expanding renewable energy standards in their states because
for the economic and environmental benefits of doing so. Without a standard, renewable energy is far
less likely to be developed because utilities tend to be over-invested in old
traditional forms of generation. Our
research found that in 2006, more than two-thirds of all new renewable energy
electric generating capacity in the United States was built in states
that had a renewable energy standard. In
2007, 70 percent of planned renewable energy generation capacity expected to be
built is in states with a renewable energy standard. We also found that when you look at all of
the plans for new electricity generating capacity in 2007 that 38 percent of
new capacity planned in states with a renewable energy standard would come from
clean energy while only 12 percent would in states that do not have a renewable
energy standard in place.
In addition
to our renewable energy resources, extensive manufacturing base and both
environmental and economic opportunities there are other reasons to enact a
strong renewable energy standard.
Here in Ohio, the results of a statewide poll conducted by Public
Opinion Strategies reveals that Ohio
voters overwhelming support a strong renewable energy standard and view
building new coal and nuclear power plants as a last resort. Attached to my testimony is a memo written by
Public Opinion Strategies which summarizes the findings of the poll and I would
like to direct your attention to the five slides at the end of my
testimony.
· The
first slide shows how Ohio voters responded to
the question of: do you favor or oppose setting a standard for renewable energy
in Ohio which
would require utilities to obtain twenty percent of their energy from renewable
sources of energy like wind and solar by 2025.
80% of respondents had a favorable response with 49% strongly favoring
and only 8% strongly opposing.
· The
second and third slides show that strong majority support for a strong
renewable energy standard exists in all of Ohio’s seven major media markets as well as
across the partisan political spectrum.
· The
fourth slide shows that of the people who favor a renewable energy standard 87%
believe that utility companies should be fined if they fail to meet the
standard.
· The
final slide shows that 69% those respondents who believed that a renewable
energy standard would raise their electricity rates still support the policy.
Given the
economic and environmental benefits that Ohio
could reap as well as the broad based support that exists for a strong
renewable energy standard we urge you to make sure that any energy policy
considered and voted on in the Senate include a strong renewable energy
standard.
Regarding
Senate Bill 221 specifically:
- Senate Bill 221 sets a requirement
for clean renewable energy resources such as wind, solar and biomass. Setting an actual requirement for renewable
energy and keeping it separate from non-renewable energy resources like coal
and nuclear are key to renewable energy actually developing in the Buckeye State.
An area of improvement that we urge you to consider is raising the
percentage requirement to 20 percent. Doing so would better position Ohio in the face of carbon limits, reduce pollution and
compete with surrounding states who are bidding for renewable energy businesses
to set up shop in Ohio. In addition, in raising the renewable energy
requirement to 20 percent we recommend that you eliminate “advanced nuclear” as
a source of energy that can meet the remaining five percent that would get us
to 25% by 2025. Building new nuclear energy will be more expensive than
building new renewable energy such as wind.
Cost estimates from a 2003 study by MIT found that electricity from a
new nuclear power plant could cost 6.7 cents per kWh while the U.S. Department
of Energy estimates that the per kWh cost of a new wind farm would be around
five cents per kWh (compared to as high as 8.7 cents per kWh for a new advanced
coal fired power plant). As evidenced by
the hole found in the reactor at the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant outside of
Toledo, nuclear
energy poses some risks and no solution exists for dealing with all of the
waste that has been left behind our nation’s nuclear plants.
- Just as it is in Senate Bill 221, the
renewable energy requirement should also be kept separate from the energy
efficiency requirement. This is critical
for getting the biggest bang out of each buck in terms of clean energy, reduced
pollution, diversifying our electricity mix and economic development. With regard to energy efficiency, I will
defer to Jack Shaner from Ohio Environmental Council and other experts who will
speak before you today.
- Senate Bill 221 includes important
language regarding new advanced coal generation which is that it must be able
to capture and sequester at least 80 percent of carbon emissions. As Ohio faces an impending cap on carbon
emissions it is critical that any new facility be a replacement to an older
facility and be as close to carbon neutral as possible so that we may see
actual reductions in emissions.
- We urge you to consider including more
specific guidance in the legislation for how and when Ohio investor owned utilities must show
progress on meeting the renewable energy requirement. Twenty-five out of twenty-six renewable
energy standards enacted in the United
States include benchmarks that utilities
must meet along the way to achieving the overall requirement.
- We also urge you to consider stronger language
in the legislation about how the PUCO will ensure compliance, including but not
limited to penalties for non-compliance with meeting the renewable energy
requirement.
In
conclusion, we urge you to ensure that any energy policy consider and passed
out of your committee contain a strong and clean renewable energy standard
requirement. Thank you for the
opportunity to testify before you today about the benefits of a strong
renewable energy standard for Ohio. I can now take any questions that you have.
