COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s electricity rate stabilization plan expires at the end of this year, and Gov. Ted Strickland has introduced a new plan that has several goals.<br>

“We want to make sure that Ohio has a sufficient supply of energy to meet our future and growing needs,” he said. “We want to make sure that our business users of electricity, including our agriculture community, continue to have access to reliable, predictable, affordable, competitively-priced electricity.”<br>

To prevent blackout, Strickland wants to modernize and update the transmission and distribution infrastructure necessary to get the electricity from the source of generation to where it is used by businesses, commercial establishments and homeowners.<br>

“We want to encourage the use of renewable sources and advanced technologies to generate more electricity within Ohio, and so, a part of the plan is to require that by the year 2025 that 25 percent of the electricity sold in Ohio comes from renewable sources and advanced technologies,” the governor said.<br>

He wants to be fair to utilities and make sure they get a just return on their investment. The utility companies, however, are not satisfied with the bill, Strickland said – they would like to be able to go to market and charge those rates.<br>

“The argument is that a competitive market will moderate prices, and that’s best for them and best for the consumer,” he said. “Our counter-argument is that no retail market exists in Ohio and if we remove all regulatory constraints on rates, that we will have unregulated monopolies.”<br>

Consumers, especially those who use large amounts of electricity, would be in difficult circumstances. Farms and other businesses will no longer be able to access competitively-priced electricity.<br>

“It could be a job killer for Ohio,” Strickland said. “My bill has the strong support of a variety of groups, including the Ohio Farm Bureau, the Ohio Manufacturers Association and the Ohio Hospital Association, as well as more than 90 other groups.<br>

“It passed the Senate in Ohio unanimously … It is now being considered by the House of Representatives and, in my judgment, they are past time when they should have completed this bill.”
The energy plan will help the agricultural community – where costs of energy necessary to carrying on a farming operation have gone up – by keeping electricity costs from spiraling out of control, he said.<br>

“It will also help the agricultural community by focusing on renewable sources and advanced technologies,” Strickland said. “We want Ohio to produce biodiesel, we want Ohio to produce ethanol.”<br>

The governor wants Ohio to be a manufacturer of component parts for various new technologies, such as the wind and solar-power industries. He also wants the state to utilize its coal reserves in an environmentally acceptable way.<br>

“We believe that the agricultural community will be hugely benefited from our bill, and that’s why various sectors of the agricultural community have signed on in support,” Strickland said.