NEWS: Vote On Green Energy Changes Delayed; Report Ups Cost Estimate (11/19/13) The key senator pushing to overhaul Ohios green energy law canceled a vote on the measure Tuesday as opponents redouble their efforts armed with revised data indicating the bill could increase customers bills by $303 million a year. Sponsor Sen. Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati), who chairs the Senate Public Utilities Committee, had planned to unveil a substitute version of his controversial proposal (SB 58*) during a Wednesday hearing before voting on it. During Senate session, Sen. Seitz said decided to cancel the hearing to allow members more time to review the substitute bill, which he has said would include some level of compromise on his proposal to eliminate the requirement for half of Ohios renewable energy to come from in-state sources. Meanwhile, the Advanced Energy Economy Ohio Institute released a revised version of an earlier study on how proposed changes to the energy efficiency standards would affect customers bills. Sen. Seitz denounced the study produced by the Ohio State Universitys Center for Resilience, which was released even before his legislation was introduced. The original study conducted by estimated the bill would increase Ohioans electricity costs by $3.65 billion in 12 years, but the updated version pushed the number higher to $3.94 billion. From the beginning, Sen. Seitz criticized our first analysis because we didnt test the entirety of his legislation, Ohio Advanced Energy Economy President Ted Ford said in a statement. Well we listened to Sen. Seitz and tested the entire bill and the results show its even worse for Ohio customers. Proposed changes to counting energy saving upgrades toward satisfying the requirement for utilities to reduce customer consumption 22% by 2025 would largely eliminate anticipated energy efficiency savings under the current law (SB221, 127th General Assembly), according to the study. The OSU report also asserted the legislation would cause the state to lose out on more than 6,500 new jobs in the renewable and energy efficiency sectors. These results again confirm that Senate Bill 58 is an unjustified giveaway to utilities and will hurt Ohio customers and economy, Mr. Ford said.
Posted on: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 17:36:55 +0000
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