Sad days for Ohio and its budding wind industry
Resource from: Windpower Engineering & Development Likes:167
Aug 05,2014
The wind Luddites are back. The original Luddites were a group of thick-headed textile artisans say some, who thought the industrial revolution and its newfangled weaving machines and looms would put their handiwork out of business. In modern terms, they had no vision, they feared progress, and more importantly for this lesson, they feared competition. Luddite mobs went so far as to destroy some of the new equipment. And so their modern-day relatives have surfaced in (sad sigh here) Ohio.
The Luddite damage has come in the guise of Senate Bill 310 which was delivered to Governor Kasich on June 4 and now signed into law. One law firm summarized the legislation with, “The bill places a two-year freeze on annual increases in renewable and energy efficiency standards, holding them at the 2014 levels while a committee evaluates the costs and benefits of keeping the standards as they are currently in place versus adopting revised standards. The bill also makes significant changes to the benchmarks after the two-year freeze, ending a requirement that utilities purchase at least half of their renewable energy from within the state.” Governor Kasich signed the bill on Friday before Father’s Day weekend, in effect, throwing some fathers out of work. Try to enjoy that weekend.
The Ohio Environmental Council responded to the bill signing with an article headlined: From Leader to Loser. “That’s the new reputation Ohio will earn as it becomes the first state in the nation to roll back its renewable energy and energy efficiency standards,” said the Council in a press release.
“Dirtier air, higher electric bills, and lost jobs and investment are the ‘dividends’ in store for Ohio …,” said Trish Demeter, OEC Managing Director of Energy and Clean Air Programs.
Demeter continued: “…a bill that for all practical purposes pulls the plug on Ohio’s clean energy standards set for electric utility companies.”
Who could possibly gain from such backward thinking? Electric utilities benefit because they don’t have to bother negotiating PPAs with those pesky wind-farm owners (the competition crux), or their low cost power. Columbia Gas may benefit because they can sell more natural gas to converted coal fired plants, if there are any in the state. The gas companies won’t have to share power-generation duties with the wind industry. Most likely, the coal companies benefit at least for the next two years while the recent EPA guidelines become law and put the squeeze on coal-fired generation.
Who loses? The people of Ohio lose. Farmers and land owners in rural Ohio lose because wind farms will not get built and the lease payments, $3,000 to $5,000 and more per turbine per year will not be paid. Rural school districts lose because they will not receive annual tax benefits, figures that would easily reach six figures.
Say goodbye to teacher pay raises and building improvements, all you school districts. And say goodbye to construction and wind turbine maintenance jobs. Lastly, the tax coffers of Ohio lose because the wind farms not built will pay no state taxes.
The unemployment rate in Ohio had settled to about 5.7%, below the national average of about 6.3%, so an uptick in the Ohio figure would not be a surprise. You can also expect electric bills to uptick with the slowing of the wind industry growth because its costs were headed down and there is every indicator to expect that trend to continue. Research from financial advisory firm Lazard shows that the wind industry has cut power costs by 50% over the last five years. Can the nuclear or coal fired pants make that claim? The Lazard reports on the cost of power from all sources, here. Wind scored best as the least expensive cost of power, meaning the wind industry provides competition to conventional power producers, until now.
What’s more, if forces can conspire to remove downward pressure on costs by eliminating growth to the Ohio wind industry, it can also influence the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to allow rate increases. Watch your electric bills.
So where do we go from here? There is an election coming up and Governor Kasich, who has done a decent job up to this point, will have a difficult time explaining his job-killing action to Ohio voters. But this setback to the wind industry is just that. The benefits of wind power are too good to ignore for more than two years. Expect a revival after that, but in the meantime, watch your electric bills.
(Windpower Engineering & Development)
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1.The news above mentioned with detailed source are from internet.We are trying our best to assure they are accurate ,timely and safe so as to let bearing users and sellers read more related info.However, it doesn't mean we agree with any point of view referred in above contents and we are not responsible for the authenticity. If you want to publish the news,please note the source and you will be legally responsible for the news published.
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