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Energy Efficiency Industries Possible For Ohio

The Renewable Energy Forecast report estimates Ohio's renewable energy and energy efficiency industries could increase revenues to about $2 trillion - that's double previous projections. But the state must be aggressive in helping develop those markets, says Roger Beznick, the Washington D.C. economist who authored the study. He says the past 10 years in Ohio have shown what doing nothing can do, and Ohio's already behind other states.

Roger Beznick: No one doubts that these renewable energies are going to grow rapidly in the future. How rapidly remains to be seen... And if Ohio wants to take advantage of this it has to move proactively and aggressively to do so.

Beznick says Ohio and the nation should look to Germany for real evidence of how government policies can generate growth in renewable energy industries. He says the country is one quarter the size of the U.S., but it produces half the world's wind rotors and a third of its solar panels, and it leads the globe in biofuels.

Roger Beznick: They've enacted very generous subsidizes for renewable energy technologies. They've passed mandates in terms of forcing utilities to employ renewable energy technologies.

The results of Beznick's study were revealed Thursday at the closing luncheon of the 2007 Solar Conference held in Cleveland, but the actual report and methodology won't be available until the end of the summer. Lisa Ann Pinkerton, 90.3.