Conservative group forms to support renewable energy standards

This article, from law firm Bricker & Ecker, is authored by Dylian Borchers.

Governor John Kasich, who last year signed the bill to freeze Ohio’s renewable energy and energy efficiency standards for two years (see our June 13, 2014 blog post for more on this), does not support continuing that freeze indefinitely, Foxnews.com reports. According to the article, “Kasich immediately shot down as ‘unacceptable’” the Energy Mandates Study Committee’s recommendation to extend the mandate freeze indefinitely. The same day that committee made its recommendation, a group of Kasich supporters announced the formation of the Ohio Conservative Energy Forum (Ohio CEF), a group “demanding tougher mandates as a matter of ‘conservative support for a common-sense, all-of-the-above state energy policy.’” The group’s executive director is Mike Hartley, who had previously been named the Ohio director of Gov. Kasich’s presidential campaign, according to the foxnews.com article. The Van Wert independent reports the freeze “has halted investment in Ohio by alternative energy companies, such as Iberdrola Renewables, the wind energy company responsible for the Blue Creek Wind Farm in Van Wert and Paulding counties.” That is a concern for Republican State Senator Cliff Hite, who said extending the freeze would harm his Senate district, which “has seen almost $800 million in clean energy investments and job creation since 2008,” according to the independent. For more, read the full foxnews.com and Van Wert independent articles.