Ohio Senators Divided on Climate Change Legislation

Monday, November 16, 2009
Topics: Environment, Politics, Other
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Republican George Voinovich sees little merit in claims the Senate Climate Change bill will create jobs. Democrat Sherrod Brown believes it could, provided changes are made.

According to analysis by the group Environment Ohio, carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels increased by 10 percent between 1990 and 2007.  Ohio ranks 4th in sheer volume of fossil fuel emissions, and is 2nd behind Texas in emissions from coal-fired power plants. 

Environment Ohio’s Amanda Moore notes that the poor economy has pushed energy use down in the last year, and emissions along with it, but both are sure to rise again as the recession wanes. 

So what we really need to do is shift our electrical generation from these dirty sources of energy to clean renewable sources of energy, so that as our demand for electricity goes back up, we are turning on wind turbines and solar panels instead of new dirty power plants.

Moore’s group is urging passage of the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, a democratic bill under consideration in the U.S. Senate that would reduce the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 and includes the provision commonly known as cap and trade.  Environment Ohio says the bill will also eventually create thousands of clean energy manufacturing jobs in the state. 

Conservatives in Congress, including Republican Senator George Voinovich, are, as you might expect, not in favor of the measure.  Here’s Voinovich speaking at a committee hearing at the Capitol last month.

Voinovich:  “There’s no credible analysis that suggests that this bill will be a net job creator.  In fact, this legislation contains a form of unemployment insurance for those who will lose their jobs because of its implementation.  Ohio has already lost enough jobs, and some of it is because we have switched from coal to natural gas.”

Democratic senator Sherrod Brown is also critical of the bill.  He’s all for creating green manufacturing jobs in Ohio, but he wants provisions that will help companies be more competitive - including financial incentives to meet new environmental standards, and make the transition to making renewable energy products like wind turbines and solar panels. 

Brown:  “I want to do climate change legislation.  I know it can create jobs that can contribute to Ohio becoming the silicon valley of alternative energy, but we need some of these changes in the bill.”

A climate change bill has already passed the House.  Brown says it will likely be weeks before the Senate measure comes to a full vote - probably after the United Nations’ December Climate Change conference in Copenhagen .