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This summary is part of Beyond the Beltway: A Report on State Energy and Climate Policies produced by the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at Berkeley Law
Governor John Kasich’s support for renewable energy may seem unsurprising, since he is about as close as the Republican Party comes to having a moderate these days. Kasich issued a strong statement condemning President Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris agreement.[1] He admitted to having some problems with the treaty as currently drafted. “But,” he continued, “I know that climate change is real. It is a global issue and will need a global agreement to address. And we could have negotiated that agreement in ways that would not needlessly destroy jobs.” He added:
“A properly negotiated agreement could actually have ended up driving innovation and creating jobs. By withdrawing from the agreement, the Administration has passed up an opportunity both to expand U.S leadership in clean energy technology and to create well-paid American jobs with a future.”
Ohio’s grid is heavily dependent on fossil fuels, according to the EIA, with almost 60% coming from coal, 24% from natural gas, and 14% from nuclear. That leaves about 2% for renewables. Ohio has a weak renewable portfolio standard. Utilities are required to obtain a percentage of their energy from renewable sources, with amounts rising steadily from less than 1% when the law was passed to 12.5% in 2026. Apparently, these percentages were still too high to suit the Ohio legislature, which passed a bill to freeze the standards.
Kasich vetoed the bill. He stated that Ohio’s “wide range of energy generation options” had helped to increase employment in the state during his term,” adding that to eliminate the RPS would risk “undermining this progress by taking away some of those energy generation options, particularly the very options most prized by the companies poised to create many jobs in Ohio in the coming years, such as high technology firms.”[2] As in many other Midwestern states, the economics of renewable energy may be starting to push back against less favorable politics.
- Chris Mosby, “Governor Kasich Blasts Paris Climate Accord Withdrawal,” Cleveland Patch (June 2, 2017), https://patch.com/ohio/cleveland/governor-kasich-blasts-paris-climate-accord-withdrawal.
- Peter Krouse, “Ohio Gov. John Kasich Vetoes Renewable Energy Freeze,” Cleveland.com (December 27, 2016), http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/12/ohio_gov_john_kasich_vetoes_re.html.