Reuters By Emily Flitter | NEW YORK Electricity company Dayton Power & Light said on Monday it would shut down two coal-fired power plants in southern Ohio next year for economic reasons, a setback for the ailing coal industry but a victory for environmental activists. Republican President Donald Trump promised in his election campaign to restore U.S. coal jobs that he said had been destroyed by environmental regulations put into effect by his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama. In 2015, coal used to produce electricity fell to its lowest level since 1984, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission data showed. That year, coal-fired generators produced 33 percent of the nation's total generation, down from over 50 percent in 2003. Read the entire article here.

Congratulations Fremont and Sandusky County for being named one of the Top 25 micropolitan areas in the nation by Site Selection Magazine. We're thrilled to help boost economic integration and provide clean energy for the region with the development of Republic Wind.  Read the full News-Messenger article here.  

MICHAEL GOGGIN AWEAMARCH 9, 2017Ohio’s Buckeye Institute, which has been funded by the fossil fuel and tobacco industries, has released a report that uses misleading and out-of-date information to attack clean energy. Most notably, the report assumes the cost of renewable energy is five times higher than reality. In addition, the report ignores how renewable energy benefits consumers by reducing the cost of electricity. Once those errors are corrected, the report’s method actually shows that renewable energy creates jobs and is a net benefit for Ohio consumers. Click here to read the full article. 

By Peter Krouse, cleveland.com on January 26, 2017 at 2:01 PM Ohio has enough wind to generate electricity on a large scale. What it lacks is a rulebook that allows developers to do just that. In 2014, the Ohio General Assembly passed legislation that more than doubled the distance wind turbines have to be from unoccupied neighboring property, assuming the owner of that property doesn't grant a waiver. The change was made at the last minute and without public hearings, leaving wind-energy advocates little time to state their case to legislators and Gov. John Kasich. The change stymied Ohio's wind industry, and placed it at a disadvantage to neighboring states, where so-called setback rules are more accommodating, industry advocates contend. Wind developers still have their sights on Ohio and are hoping to persuade state lawmakers to return to the old setbacks. But will that happen? Or might there be a compromise that legislators and the industry can agree on, especially if those legislators see the wind industry attracting good jobs to the state as a result? Read the full story here.

JESSICA COLLINGSWORTH, POLICY ANALYST, CLEAN ENERGY | JANUARY 13, 2017, 10:19 AM EST During the final hours of 2016, Ohio Governor John Kasich vetoed Substitute House Bill 554, legislation that would have made Ohio’s clean energy standards voluntary, effectively extending the two year freeze. By vetoing the bill, Kasich restored Ohio’s renewable energy and energy efficiency standards, which have been frozen since 2014. Read the full article here. 

By Dan GearinoThe Columbus Dispatch • Tuesday December 27, 2016 5:46 PM Gov. John Kasich has vetoed a bill that would weaken the state's clean-energy standards, saying that the measure "amounts to self-inflicted damage to both our state's near- and long-term economic competitiveness." Continue reading

Updated by David Roberts@[email protected] Dec 13, 2016, 9:30am EST "The same year, at the last minute, with no public hearings and virtually no debate, Ohio passed HB 483, which “tripled property line setbacks for [wind] turbines on commercial farms that did not already have permits.” It basically froze utility-scale wind development in the state. Seitz was behind that, too; he really hates wind." Read the full article here.

Dec. 10, 2016 By Tom Henry - The Toledo Blade COLUMBUS — Ohio’s energy future is back in Gov. John Kasich’s hands now that both Ohio General Assembly chambers passed a bill this week that calls for compliance with the state’s clean energy standards to be voluntary for another two years. Continue reading

By John Funk, The Plain Dealer on November 30, 2016 at 1:37 PM COLUMBUS, Ohio -- For the second day in a row, businesses, trade groups and environmentalists lined up outside State House committee hearing rooms to testify against a proposal to make Ohio's green energy mandates voluntary for the next three years. The mandates requiring power companies to provide an annually increasing percentage of green power were approved by a near-unanimous vote in 2008, but then in 2014 were suspended for two years after months of bitter hearings. Continue reading

The booming U.S. wind industry is helping in more ways than one: along with producing clean, renewable energy, it's putting our country back to work. Not everyone has recovered from the 2008 recession, and finding jobs is still difficult for many Americans. But an increasing number of people are finding work in the wind industry, specifically in wind turbine manufacturing facilities. Chris Johnson of Colorado was working at a newsprint factory until his job was outsourced. He then started working as a line worker at the Vestas wind turbine blade factory in Brighton. He is now the managing supervisor of the Brighton plant. Click through to read more Continue reading