The provision would have allowed Ohio electric customers who shop for their power to avoid paying any extra charges approved to subsidize AEP's new power generation. Seitz said it would be unfair for customers who get their power from another provider to pay for AEP's investment. The charges instead should be bypassable, he said.

Energy Policy Ohio

The House voted 65-30 to pass House Bill 114, which would replace state-mandated thresholds of renewable energy with goals that would have no penalties attached for non-compliance. “It’s already happening,” said Rep. Bill Seitz (R., Cincinnati) as he argued that electric utilities are moving toward renewables anyway.

Energy Policy Ohio

The Republican majority in the Ohio House is moving again to get rid of the state's renewable energy rules. In a bill sponsored by a Cincinnati Republican and released late Tuesday, the House would make voluntary the mandates that now require power companies to generate or buy and sell a percentage of power from wind, solar and other renewable technologies.

Energy Policy Ohio

After the committee recommended legislators indefinitely suspend Ohio’s portfolio standards, the Legislature sent to Kasich’s desk a measure that would have delayed implementation until 2019. Kasich vetoed the bill two days after Christmas. 

Taxes & Subsidies Energy Policy Ohio

My respect for University of Cincinnati Professor Joe Tomain is deep, but I need no energy policy lessons from him.

Energy Policy Ohio

State Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, was a leading supporter of the bill to extend the freeze. He argued Kasich wanted to appease “coastal elites” in the renewable energy industry by allowing the mandates to resume. The mandates drive up costs by forcing businesses to buy energy from renewable sources, Seitz said.

Energy Policy Ohio

Ohio Gov. John Kasich vetoed legislation Tuesday that would have allowed investor-owned utilities to avoid making renewable energy investments for another two years.

Energy Policy Ohio

Kasich vetoed House Bill 554 on Tuesday, going against his own Republican party that passed the legislation to make voluntary a rule that electric companies meet a portion of their power through clean-energy sources like wind and solar. Kasich voted for the original freeze, in 2014, but since vowed to veto another one.

Energy Policy Ohio

Ohio Gov. John Kasich vetoed legislation Tuesday that would have allowed investor-owned utilities to avoid making renewable energy investments for another two years.

Energy Policy Ohio

Clean-energy standards would become optional for the next two years under a bill that passed the Ohio Senate late Thursday night and then passed the House early this morning. That sends it Gov. John Kasich, who has hinted that he will veto it. 

Energy Policy Ohio

In a 12-5 vote, the committee recommended a plan that, among other things, would make optional the state's renewable-energy standards for the next three years.

Energy Policy Ohio

Environmental groups from Spain, France and the United Kingdom have now joined North American organizations in opposing a plan to build a pilot wind farm in western Lake Erie, near the Ohio shore, along the U.S. side of the border.

Offshore Wind Energy Policy Canada USA Ohio

The Ohio House of Representatives will consider eliminating Ohio's energy efficiency and renewable energy standards. Introduced today by Rep. Ron Amstutz, a Wooster Republican, House Bill 554 is a companion to Senate Bill 320, introduced two weeks ago by Cincinnati Republican Sen. Bill Seitz.

Energy Policy Ohio

A long-stalled, controversial wind farm in Champaign County recently took a big step toward construction but a debate over the future of Ohio’s renewable energy rules could continue to slow its development.

Energy Policy Ohio

Kasich’s team told Seitz they didn’t want the standards to be frozen indefinitely. Seitz said he would come up with a definite date, which led to the planned end-date of Dec. 31, 2019. The two sides met about six weeks ago to talk about it.

Energy Policy Ohio

State Sen. Bill Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican, said the draft legislation circulated last week tacks another three years onto a current two-year delay in phasing in state targets for use of solar, wind and other forms of renewable energy by Ohio power companies.

Energy Policy Ohio

Sen. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, has been circulating a draft of a three-year extension of the freeze and could introduce it as a bill as soon as next week, according to lawmakers and lobbyists who are closely following it. The bill would seek to implement some of the recommendations of the Energy Mandates Study Committee, a joint House-Senate panel that issued a final report in September.

Energy Policy Ohio

The language for proposed amendments to the Ohio Constitution dealing with renewable energy and legislative ethics was approved by state Attorney General Mike DeWine on Monday.

Energy Policy Ohio

Northwestern Ohio officials are lining up behind a legislative proposal to allow more local control of where wind farms can be built, a plan that would help to get around restrictions passed last year.

Energy Policy Zoning/Planning Ohio

A two-year suspension of the government wind energy mandates that were imposed on Ohio utilities will become permanent if the September recommendation of a bicameral legislative panel there is followed. The primary reason cited for the decision was uncertainty over President Obama’s Clean Power Plan.

Energy Policy Ohio