By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Farmers, scientists, environmentalists and industry and government leaders will take a step in creating renewable energy policy at Energy Connections - Networking to Achieve the 25x’25 Vision.

The conference will be at Hocking College in Nelsonville on Friday, Nov. 21.

“25x’25 is becoming a rallying cry for renewable energy and a goal for America - to get 25 percent of our nation’s energy from renewable sources like wind, solar and biofuels by the year 2025,” said Circleville farmer Bill Richards, former chief of the USDA-Soil Conservation Service and current member of the National 25x’25 Steering Committee. “Agriculture plays a key role in meeting this objective, but we are not alone.”

The 25x’25 Alliance, a work group chartered by the steering committee, is composed of a cross section of agricultural, forestry, industry, environmental and conservation leaders to help further define sustainability in a 25x’25 renewable future. The mission of the work group was to develop recommendations for sustainability principles that would help guide the evolution of 25x’25.

“The focus for this meeting, the second conference we’ve had in the state, is to take a look at and tap into networking opportunities,” said Dale Arnold, Ohio Farm Bureau, a member of the 25x’25 Alliance in Ohio which is hosting the conference.

The conference will include briefings on state and national energy strategy along with breakout sessions exploring Ohio-based technology initiatives, expanding renewable for farm and home use, energy efficiency and the impact of climate change discussions on energy.

In one of the first briefings the USDA will address: The elections and the new president’s energy policies, and how they’ll impact legislation and energy development on the federal level, Arnold said.

In Ohio, many academic institutions with the University Clean Energy Alliance of Ohio are doing energy related research, Arnold said.

A number of farmers in Ohio Farm Bureau and Ohio Farmers Union, the Ohio Corn Growers Assoc. and the Ohio Soybean Assoc. are growing crops for renewable fuels.

“We also have groups who traditionally have not been in the 25x’25 Alliance, that farmers and other folks should know about and start working with,” Arnold said.

“It is bringing those people together to find out that agriculture is not the only group working on this particular issue or this particular phase. We should work together; we should discover what others are doing and consequently see where we can work to look at policy and other projects where we can do some joint efforts.”

The last part of the day will be a brainstorming session to discuss what the next steps should be, finding ways to work together and to identify projects, goals and policies that will help to support renewable energy development in Ohio.

For registration information, visit the Take a Look section of the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation website at www.ofbf.org, or contact Dale Arnold at darnold@ofbf.org, or call 614-246-8294.