Until last Wednesday, Ohio was poised to be the home of the largest solar power project east of the Rocky Mountains.
Until last Wednesday, AEP Ohio was all set to build this 49 megawatt project on 700 acres of old strip-mined land in the coal fields of Southeast Ohio.
Until last Wednesday, 25,000 homes were ready to be powered by this clean, green power plant.Until last Wednesday, that is.
That's when the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) abruptly pulled the plug on this promising project. It decided the project and all of its related jobs and investments just weren't needed in Ohio. Now, all that clean energy and all those new jobs and investments are in jeopardy.
In its January 9 ruling (http://bit.ly/W95ynm), which went against the recommendation of its own staff, the PUCO commissioners claimed there is no need for the project. The 600 Ohioans who were counting on this project for jobs would surely disagree with that assessment. As would the hundreds of thousands people who live downwind of Ohio's old coal-burning power plants.
Gov. Kasich plans to let Ohio turn its back on a chance for Ohio to jump-start a more sustainable future.
Tell Governor Kasich and the PUCO to reverse their decision and stand up for a cleaner energy and new jobs.
As usual, there is always more to the story:
"AEP was hoping the PUCO would allow the utility to pay for electricity from the project by making all customers pay for a portion of the costs through a new charge in utility bills. Previously, the agency has said it would allow charges like this if there was a clear need and if the free market was not going to provide a similar resource. The PUCO's staff had said the project was needed, part of a larger agreement with AEP."
So the way I read it, the PUCO did all of us a HUGE FAVOR by denying AEP the ability to charge US higher electricity rates to pay for this facility that could not compete on its own in the free market.
I really have to wonder how it is that a solar facility that gets its energy for free from the sun and once built has practically no operating costs is still more expensive than a coal fired power plant that involves digging rocks out of the earth, transporting them hundreds of miles, burning them in complex boilers and then disposing of the waste material. There is something woefully wrong if the latter is cheaper to run than the former.