Business vs. clean energy: Ohioans pulled 2 ways

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/03/07/copy/business-vs--clean-energy-ohioans-pulled-2-ways.html?adsec=politics&sid=101

Business vs. clean energy: Ohioans pulled 2 ways

Sunday, March 7, 2010 2:56 AM
By Jack Torry
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

WASHINGTON - The letter last week to Sen. Sherrod Brown was signed by executives from some of the largest companies and business organizations in Ohio - including FirstEnergy of Akron, the Timken Company of Canton, the Ohio Manufacturers' Association and the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.

In pointed language, the authors urged Brown to back a bill that would prevent the U.S. Environmental Agency from regulating the greenhouse gasses thought to cause climate change, warning in near-apocalyptic terms that "the future of Ohio may depend on this vote."

The letter was signed by 25 executives, right down to the head of J's Pizza Market in Mentor. And it vividly illustrates the pressure that Ohio lawmakers, whose state gets about 86 percent of its electricity from coal-fired power plants, face from industries to oppose new restrictions on emissions of carbon dioxide - either from Congress approving new laws or the EPA issuing regulations.

Although environmentalists are wary of Brown's support of technology designed to allow utility companies to burn Ohio coal without emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, they largely back the senator, who likes to boast that "Ohio really is on the road to being the Silicon Valley of alternative energy."

...

[WCGreen]

1. Brown is stuck between a rock and a hard place on this one...

If Timken moves out, that would be another straw on the way to breaking the economic camels back here in Ohio.

Ohio is in such bad shape economically that anything could tip it over the edge.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Ohio is in such bad shape economically that anything could tip it over the edge.

Welcome to the club. (It's not a very exclusive one.)

[safeinOhio]

3. That's an easy one

Dear Sen Brown
Please write a bill banning all pollution from energy producers and PLEASE, never mention global warming in the bill. Only talk about health issues like asthma and mercury poisoning of the people of Ohio. Let the Chamber of Commerce defend that.