Utilities on wrong side of history
Steve Melink is president of Milford-based Melink Corp.
Dear Sen. Portman: I commend you for your leadership on energy efficiency policy. With little being accomplished in Washington these days, it's refreshing to see our Ohio senator working to build bipartisan support for saving energy.
But Ohio can do much better than just save energy. It can generate its own clean and renewable energy, too. Your balanced approach is a step in the right direction. But with growing public safety and health concerns around fossil fuel-based dirty power, we need to do more.
The U.S. EPA Clean Power Plan will help us. Our Ohio Valley suffers from some of the worst air pollution in the nation due to its heavy reliance on coal. As a result, respiratory and cardiac diseases are a chronic problem. In fact, asthma is a top reason for admittance at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
Think of the drag on our society and quality of life. Thousands of missed school days. Thousands of missed work days by parents. The cumulative health care and insurance costs. And the early deaths from strokes and heart attacks. Ohio can do better than half-measures.
I still vividly remember being awakened by my asthmatic daughter years ago because she could not breathe. Experiences like this cannot help but form one's thinking. Multiple trips to the ER later, I decided to bend my career to try to provide solutions.
Until last year, Ohio was on its way to becoming a leader in advanced energy. Law required that utilities diversify their energy portfolio beyond their heavy reliance on coal and work toward 12.5 percent renewable energy – including 0.5 percent solar power – by 2025. This was virtually unanimously approved.
But the utilities, which have long enjoyed a pseudo-monopoly on selling us dirty power, saw the threat small- and medium-size solar and wind developers posed to their business model. So they plied their political leverage with state lawmakers, who then froze the standards.
This in turn has killed hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs across Ohio. Companies that were investing millions of dollars in renewable energy projects and hiring employees have either shut down, downsized, or gone to other states where energy policies are more forward-looking.
It should be noted the utilities say solar and wind power are too expensive. Yet, they are installing hundreds of solar and wind farms across the United States. They just want you to believe solar and wind are too expensive, so homeowners and businesses don't get any ideas about energy independence.
Speaking of energy independence. After four decades and two wars, we need to finally resolve ourselves to achieving it. We cannot forever drill ourselves out of this problem. And we risk becoming dependent on China for solar panels and wind turbines like we still are on the Middle East for oil.
Regarding the EPA Clean Power Plan. If Ohio would continue on the path it was already on, we would be able to meet most if not all of our proposed carbon emissions reductions. Misinformed lawmakers say this is too costly, but only because they are beholden to the utilities.
More than enough studies have shown that diversifying our energy mix and not putting all our eggs in the fossil fuel basket increases competition. And this promotes lower electric rates than the non-competitive alternative the utilities want. Plus, it creates jobs and spurs development.
Many other states and countries are passing us by in the meantime. Warren Buffet is arguably the greatest investor of all time and known for putting his money only in areas with highly certain long-term growth. Solar and wind power are major parts of his portfolio.
In fact, 2013 was a tipping point because more new electric generation capacity came online from renewable energy projects that year than from new fossil fuel plants – including natural gas. Many of the fastest-growing companies, including Apple, Google and Facebook, want 100 percent renewable energy.
The utilities are on the wrong side of history. Like the regulated telecom industry before them, they can try to legislate and litigate their way to survival. But the future is with hundreds of small- and medium-size companies that know how to innovate and customer-serve their way to success.
Pope Francis will be releasing an encyclical on the environment soon. The moral imperative to address the costs and risks of climate change – especially with the poor – will be clear. Perhaps we can act as a human family, be faithful stewards and fight for all life – present and future.
So I ask for your leadership again. Specifically, support lifting the freeze on our state's clean energy standards so we can get back to improving our economy, security and environment. Ohio can comply with the EPA Clean Power Plan, and we can compete on the world stage of clean energy.