Electric Bills Likely To Rise

Con­sumers and busi­nesses will see their elec­tric bills go up if Gov­er­nor Kasich signs a new bill rolling back Ohio’s energy effi­ciency and renew­able energy stan­dards, accord­ing to a let­ter sent to the gov­er­nor on Wednes­day by a coali­tion of 51 com­pa­nies and 21 orga­ni­za­tions.

Mean­while, the governor’s office said Wednes­day that he will sign the bill, which puts a two-year freeze on stan­dards that call for reduc­ing the state’s reliance on non­re­new­able fos­sil fuels, such as coal.

The let­ter said the roll­back is par­tic­u­larly prob­lem­atic given Monday’s announce­ment by the U.S. Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency of pro­posed rules requir­ing a 30 per­cent reduc­tion in car­bon diox­ide emis­sions from fossil-fueled power plants by 2030.

While the let­ter sent to the gov­er­nor doesn’t specif­i­cally ask him to veto the bill, it out­lines what the sign­ers say is wrong with the leg­is­la­tion.

But the governor’s office on Wednes­day, said the gov­er­nor will sign the energy man­date roll­back, known as Sen­ate Bill 310. In addi­tion to the two-year freeze, the leg­is­la­tion sets up a study com­mit­tee and states an inten­tion to per­ma­nently reduce energy effi­ciency and renew­able energy rules.