Ohio
Q&A: Watchdog group investigates Ohio wind energy foe
The Checks and Balances Project wants to know why a supposed free-market conservative apparently wants to pick winners and losers when it comes to energy.
Energy News Network (https://energynews.us/tag/ohio-wind-setbacks/page/2/)
An eleventh-hour amendment to an Ohio state budget bill in 2014 tripled property line setbacks for commercial wind turbines, essentially suspending wind energy development in the state. After several failed attempts to loosen the restrictions through legislation, a renewable energy group and four Ohio landowners sued the state in November 2018, alleging the General Assembly violated the state constitution’s “single-subject rule” for legislation.
The Checks and Balances Project wants to know why a supposed free-market conservative apparently wants to pick winners and losers when it comes to energy.
An Ohio Republican’s bill would relax one of the nation’s strictest wind farm setback laws, but a proposed rule change could make getting variances next to impossible.
Two bills in the Ohio Senate aim to ease restrictions in a 2014 law that have effectively blocked the development of new commercial wind farms in the state.
New poll results show that a majority of Ohio voters continue to support state policies to encourage more use of clean energy, including a renewable portfolio standard and revised wind turbine setbacks — even in the state’s coal country region.
Ohio’s budget bill reported out of the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday comes with an amendment that would expressly authorize extra charges to ratepayers to support utilities’ financial health.