Global Warming News

MILWAUKEE – Ohio Governor Ted Strickland joined with 11 Midwestern Governors to take steps to address global warming by supporting regional goals for renewable energy and energy efficiency.Governor Strickland did not sign on to the full Midwestern Regional Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord, choosing to only observe the carbon cap and trade provision. Nine other states joined the full multi-state regional agreement to limit carbon dioxide emissions from dirty coal plants and other sources of electricity.

The Midwestern Governor’s Association’s Energy Security and Climate Stewardship Platform set a goal for the region to harness 30 percent of their electricity from renewable energy resources by 2030.

“Setting a regional goal of a 30 percent renewable energy standard shows why it is crucial for Ohio to pass a strong state renewable energy standard as well,” said Amy Gomberg, Advocate with Environment Ohio. “States around the region have already benefited by diversifying their electricity mix with renewable energy, now it’s time for Ohio to step up and join the rest of the region before it is too late.”

A recent analysis by Environment Ohio showed that diversifying Ohio’s electricity supply with 20 percent wind energy by 2020 would create an estimated net of 40,000 person-years of employment through 2020, or the equivalent of 3,100 permanent, full-time jobs. It would also increase wages paid to Ohio workers by a cumulative net total of $3.7 billion, and would increase gross state product (GSP) by an estimated net of $8.2 billion through 2020. The analysis also showed that landowners can lease land for wind farms, creating an additional income stream.

Increasing Ohio’s use of wind energy could supplement landowner income with cumulative total lease payments of $200 million through 2020. And developing Ohio’s wind power resources would generate on the order of $1.5 billion in property taxes (total through 2020) to fund education and other local government services, mainly in rural areas of the state.

In addition to creating jobs and economic growth, investing in renewable energy would help create a cleaner, healthier future for Ohio. Harnessing 20 percent of our electricity from wind energy would avoid 170 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, the leading global warming pollutant (equivalent to retiring more than 2 million cars from the road), as well as 470,000 tons of soot-forming sulfur dioxide, 120,000 tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxides; and 4,000 pounds of mercury, a neurological toxicant.

Ohio is one of the largest contributors of global warming pollution in the country. The energy industry is generating 265.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution a year – the fourth-highest total in the nation – according figures obtained from the website of the Energy Information Administration in the U.S. Department of Energy.

An Ohio poll released this October, 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. Eighty percent of Ohio voters supported 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. The 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. Additionally, the poll showed that 69 percent of the 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 are glad that Governor Strickland has taken these preliminary steps to work with the other Midwestern Governors. Hopefully, this is just the beginning to much more bold initiatives that will reduce our global warming pollution and make Ohio and the region more energy independent,” concluded Gomberg.

The Midwestern Governor’s Association’s Energy Security and Climate Stewardship Platform also calls for at least 2 percent of regional annual electricity retail sales to be met through energy efficiency improvements by 2015, and continue to achieve an additional 2 percent in efficiency improvements every year thereafter.