Strickland Signs Energy Bill, Ohio Poised for Massive Job Growth if Carbon Market Capped, Experts, Employers Say

ePluribus Media OhioNews Bureau 

COLUMBUS, OHIO: Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland Thursday signed into law the state’s new energy bill, which while everyone says it will lead to higher energy prices in the near term will also pave the way for what a panel of economists, energy experts and advanced-energy employers said could lead to massive job growth if action to turn the tide on global warming is addressed now through a marketplace system for reducing carbon emissions known as cap and trade.

Strickland made Ohio the 26^th state to enact a renewable energy standard, an accomplishment environment advocates, labor organizations, manufacturers and legislative leaders were fired up over. The bill is described as a “landmark energy reform bill that will ensure predictability of affordable energy prices and serve as a catalyst to enhance energy industries in Ohio, bringing new jobs while protecting existing jobs.”

“Today I am proud to say that with the help of legislative leaders in both parties we have kept our word to Ohioans on these important and guiding principles. This bill, Senate Bill 221, will ensure predictability of affordable energy prices and maintain state controls necessary to protect Ohio jobs and businesses.

We will safeguard Ohio families by empowering consumers and modernizing Ohio’s energy infrastructure. And we will attract the jobs of the future through an advanced energy portfolio standard—and today’s action by Ohio means that a majority of states now agree that these technologies represent the future of energy in the United States." [Strickland]

In his statement on the bill when it was introduced, Strickland said, “Energy is at the core of Ohio's economic and environmental health.  Energy built our past; energy sustains our present; and, energy holds the promise of an even brighter future.  That future is ours to shape.[Gov. Strickland]

In the absence of help from the Bush White House or Congress on producing a coherent renewable energy standard, supporters of the bill said state like Ohio have to go their own way.

“Clearly this is a case of individual states leading the way in the face of failed attempts by Congress to pass a national renewable energy standard,” said Erin Bowser of Environment Ohio, a group that lobbied heavily with a coalition of other partners for the advanced-energy part of the bill, which is said to be a model for other states to follow.

The punchy name of the energy plan, “Energy, Jobs and Progress,” goes to the heart of what advocates of green energy say can happen now that specific standards and incentives are in place.

For a job-hungry state like Ohio, which has seen hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs siphoned off to other states or nations over the last 15 years, the news a panel of energy experts delivered on Thursday that Ohio could reap thousands of new “green” jobs should be welcomed with the same exhilaration an old oil man would feel upon seeing a towering gush of crude explode from the ground.

In a preemptive strike to provide background and analysis on the presentation to be given tomorrow in Columbus by Ohio Sen. George V. Voinovich about the results of an oil-funded report on cap and trade panelists think presents misleading arguments, Tom Bullock, of the National Resources Defense Council, Pew Environment Group, lead the panel in a discussion of the opportunities for green energy job growth, which already has a strong foothold in Ohio, and the potential for Ohio to become both a world leader in technology and an energy exporter.

“Now more than ever, America needs to harness its ingenuity and resil­ience to meet our growing energy needs with clean energy technology solutions that will bring jobs back to this country and state, enhance our national security and reduce harmful pollution,” Bullock said in his opening remarks. Bullock and his co-panelists spoke of the need to address global warming and the costs of inaction.

Serving as the moderator for a group that include a professor of economics, two experts on energy public policy and three advanced energy employers, Bullock said the purpose of the panel conference call was to explain how a market-based program to limit carbon dioxide emissions can help the Buckeye State expand its job market, invest in existing and new technologies and become a leader in the production and exportation of these technologies.

Bullock reiterated that global warming is affecting Ohio, as the OhioNews Bureau has reported on previously, as demonstrated by more severe storms and floods, water levels dropping in Lake Erie, on the northern shore, and the migration northward of growing ranges, which will have a direct impact on agriculture, still Ohio’s largest industry.

As the economy evolves from cheap oil to an energy-diversified, carbon-constrained environment, Bullock said the best policy bridge to the future is through a system of cap and trade. Cap and trade is a marketplace process that reduces emissions in a cost-effective and flexible manner by creating a financial incentive for emission reductions by assigning a cost to polluting.

Creating the technology isn’t the problem, Bullock said, noting that wind turbines were invented in the 1930s in Cleveland. He said what’s lacking now is a “business reason to use clean technology.” He said the science is clear and action is needed now to achieve emissions target for carbon dioxide, a major culprit in global warming science.