OCA News and Information

Former Mich. gov encourages Ohio leaders to push clean energy agenda as way to boost economy

By Associated Press, Wednesday, April 27, 1:55 PM

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm continued a nationwide clean energy tour in Ohio on Wednesday, imploring an audience of academics, energy consultants and lobbyists to carry the Pew Clean Energy Program’s bipartisan call to action to state and national leaders.

During a keynote address to the University Clean Energy Alliance of Ohio, the former two-term governor delivered an impassioned plea for advocates not to miss a critical opportunity for setting national clean-energy policy goals. The Democrat is working with former U.S. Sen. John Warner of Virginia, a Republican, on the effort.

“Globalization has completely changed the conversation. ... Other nations are taking action to create jobs for their people,” Granholm told the breakfast gathering. “And so we have got to wake up and say we’re not in this hermetically-sealed environment. We have got to take action.”

According to Pew research, China and Germany have outpaced the United States during the past two years in the dollars they’ve invested in the clean energy sector — $54.4 billion for China and $41.2 billion for Germany, compared with $34 billion for the U.S.

“I don’t know about you, but I am not willing for America to stand on the bronze Olympic stand and be proud. ‘We’re No. 3!’” said Granholm, a senior policy adviser to Pew. “That’s not who we are, and I hope that’s not who you think we should be.”

Mike Carey, president of the Ohio Coal Association, questioned Granholm’s message. He said China is spending more on all sources of energy to meet basic, or baseline, demand — especially coal.

“They may be spending money in renewable sources, but by far and away they’re spending money on bringing new baseline generation to the marketplace — and that’s what’s going to drive their economy in the future,” he said.

Ohio is among eight stops on Granholm’s tour — seven states and the District of Columbia where overall jobs fell but the clean energy economy increased. The state has attracted $74 million in clean technology venture capital over the past three years, according to Pew.

In an interview with The Associated Press ahead of her appearance, Granholm said supporters of the effort believe the time is right both economically and politically.

She said the federal deficit is important, but most Ohioans are more concerned about jobs and gas prices. So Pew worked to identify policies with broad support that would boost employment and lower pump prices.

It has steered clear of the most divisive energy policies, such as cap-and-trade emissions swapping programs and carbon taxes.

“We’re talking about these four pragmatic policies that have overwhelming support.”

The Pew policy goals are: requiring that 20 percent of energy production come from renewable sources by 2025; increasing fuel efficiency in vehicles to at least 50 mpg for model years 2017 to 2025; doubling the number of industrial facilities that recycle waste heat into power by 2020; and increase research-and-development funding from $3.8 billion to $15 billion by 2015.

Carey said such targets ultimately increase costs for consumers.

“The bottom line is any time we try to pick winners and losers in energy, ultimately it’s the consumer that will have to pay the price,” he said. “So if you’re going to require 20 percent of renewables, which are more expensive than your baseload coal energy, it’s going to resonate with people the same as the idea of paying more at the pump is starting to resonate. That’s why we can see the defeat of policies like the cap and trade bill. This is just more of same.”

Pew and Granholm say their goals are moderate and widely supported by the public. Their polling showed 85 percent of Americans support policies that promote clean energy use while reducing the country’s reliance on foreign oil. That includes strong majorities of Democrats, Republicans, independents and tea party supporters.

Ohio coal industry says Obama promised to bankrupt coal-fired power plant builders: PolitiFact Ohio

Published: Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 3:10 PM     Updated: Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 3:14 PM

By Stephen Koff, The Plain Dealer

Says that President Obama said in 2008 that his proposed greenhouse gas regulations "will bankrupt" anyone who wants to build a new coal-fired power plant.

-- Ohio Coal Association

It’s 2008 all over again, based on a claim that recently surfaced from Ohio’s coal industry. That was the year Barack Obama won the presidency. Ten months earlier, the candidate -- a Democratic senator from Illinois who was campaigning for the presidential nomination -- did a wide-ranging, videotaped interview with the San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial board that included his prescription for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Before the campaign would end, his political opponents, including Sarah Palin, discovered the interview on the newspaper’s website and tried to use it against Obama in coal-rich states like Ohio. Maybe you’ve forgotten about it. The coal industry, in a long battle against proposals to cut greenhouse gas emissions by reducing coal use, has not.

Mike Carey, president of the Ohio Coal Association, brought up Obama’s statement anew when he testified March 1 to a House subcommittee on energy and power, in advance of a proposed House Republican bill that would strip the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of its ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

"We absolutely must oppose the new effort by the Obama administration to eliminate coal through the new proposed plant emissions and greenhouse gas regulations," Carey said. "In 2008, President Obama said, ‘If someone wants to build a new coal-fired power plant they can, but it will bankrupt them because they will be charged a huge sum for all the greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.’ "

Later in his testimony, Carey added, "Remember what President Obama promised; they will bankrupt anyone who plans to build a coal facility."

Did Obama really promise that?

It’s a question that matters in states that employ coal miners and rely on coal-fired electricity, especially as the U.S. EPA under Obama prepares to restrict carbon emissions.