Tell your state senator: No de facto ban on solar in Ohio

Last month we told you about Senate Bill 294, which would “declare the state’s energy siting policy” by instructing the Ohio Power Siting Board on which kinds of power projects they can approve and which they can’t.

Sponsored by George Lang and Mark Romanchuk, SB 294 has been called a “de facto statewide ban” on solar and wind energy.

Based on model legislation from the climate-denying American Legislative Exchange Council, SB 294 requires new electricity generation facilities to “employ affordable, reliable, and clean energy sources” while minimizing reliance on “foreign adversary nations.”  

While that may sound reasonable, the definitions of these words in SB 294 would make it almost impossible for solar and wind projects to be approved in Ohio, and even easier for oil, gas, and nuclear.

Tell your state senator: No boosting oil and gas while squashing solar and wind. Vote NO on SB 294.

Some talking points:

• SB 294 defines fracked gas and nuclear as “clean energy” under Ohio law, making them eligible for federal tax credits meant for renewable energy such as solar and wind.
• Fracked methane gas is 80% more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. It comes from the highly polluting process of fracking – including of our state parks and public lands – which converts billions of gallons of our fresh water to toxic radioactive waste each year.
• Solar and wind are the cheapest and most deployable form of energy on any scale. They are cheaper and quicker to build than gas and much cheaper and quicker than nuclear.
• Ohio is home to several major solar panel manufacturing companies, including First Solar in Perrysburg and Illuminate USA in Pataskala – no foreign adversary nations required.
• When paired with battery storage, solar and wind can provide reliable, dispatchable 24/7 power. Demand for gas in California has dropped 40% in the past two years because people are drawing from battery storage at night. Yet SB 294 does not recognize the existence of batteries.

Tell your state senator: Don’t boost oil and gas while squashing solar and wind. Vote NO on SB 294.

SB 294 is yet another effort by the oil and gas industry to get Ohio legislators to boost their polluting industries while squashing competition from clean renewable energy.

• Ohio has the most draconian wind turbine setback law in the nation, hobbling the wind industry.
• A 2021 law has allowed 37 Ohio counties to ban solar and wind. Even where renewable energy is not banned, the Ohio Power Siting Board has squashed over 2000 MW of solar – enough to power Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati combined.
• Meanwhile, oil and gas are sited only on the state level, often through a fast-track process with little to no notification of local communities and no ability for local officials to say no.

SB 294 would make this lack of parity in Ohio’s energy policy even worse – at a time when state officials claim we need more energy generation.

Ohio is mired in decades of waste from the coal, oil, gas, and nuclear industries. We need clean and renewable energy from solar and wind – and we could profit from it, if this legislature would stop squashing it.

Please tell your Ohio state senator to VOTE NO on SB 294.

The links above will take you to a spreadsheet with the emails, phone numbers, and social media of all Ohio state Senators. You can use that to contact your own Senator in any of these ways.

If you don’t know who your state Senator is, you can:

• Enter your address here to find out: https://ohiosenate.gov/members/district-map
• Then go to the Ohio Senate Contact Information spreadsheet to find out how to reach them.

Below is a sample email you can send to your state Senator — but don’t forget to put it into your own words. Let them know why you care about renewable energy in Ohio. Tell a personal story if you have one.

Our state Seantors will likely vote on Senate Bill 294 soon. We need to tell them to vote NO.

I am writing to express deep concern about Senate Bill 294, which is currently in the Senate Energy Committee.

SB 294 would declare the state’s energy siting policy to be that fracked gas and nuclear are “clean energy,” while defining solar and wind as unreliable and dependent on foreign adversary nations.

None of that is true – yet if passed, SB 294 would make it even harder than it already is for solar and wind projects to be approved in Ohio, and easier for gas and nuclear.

Consider:

— Methane gas is 80% more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. It comes from the highly polluting process of fracking – including of our state parks and public lands – which converts billions of gallons of our fresh water to toxic radioactive waste each year.

— Solar and wind are the cheapest and most deployable forms of energy — cheaper and faster than gas, and way cheaper and faster than nuclear — and much cleaner.

— Ohio is home to several major solar panel manufacturers, including First Solar in Perrysburg and Illuminate USA in Pataskala. These companies employ thousands of Ohioans with no foreign adversary nations required.

— When paired with battery storage, solar and wind can provide reliable, dispatchable 24/7 power. It is enough to power entire nations like Costa Rica, Iceland, Norway and Nepal – as well as a 40% drop in demand for gas in California in the last two years.

SB 294 is yet another effort by the oil and gas industry to get Ohio legislators to boost their polluting products while squashing competition from clean renewable energy.

— Ohio has the most draconian wind turbine setback law in the nation, hobbling the wind industry.

— SB 52 allowed 37 Ohio counties to ban solar and wind. Even in areas where renewables are not banned, the Ohio Power Siting Board has squashed over 2000 MW of solar – enough to power Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati combined.

— Meanwhile, oil and gas are sited only on the state level, often through a fast-track process with little to no notification of local communities and no ability for local officials to say no.

SB 294 would make this lack of parity in Ohio’s energy policy even worse than it already is -– at a time when state officials claim we need more energy generation.

Ohio is mired in decades of waste from the coal, oil, gas, and nuclear industries. We need clean renewable energy from solar and wind – and we could profit from it, if this legislature would stop squashing it.

Please Vote NO on SB 294. Thank you.