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Bill to Increase Energy Efficiency in Ohio Has Been Introduced

 energy efficiency thermostat
Jo Ingles
/
Statehouse News Bureau
An energy efficiency thermostat.

When Ohio lawmakers passed HB 6, the nuclear bailout law, they scrapped alternative energy standards. And while HB 6 was repealed, energy efficiency programs that were axed have not returned. Now, there’s a bill that adds an incentive for electric companies to push energy efficiency.

The bill (HB 389) has bipartisan support. Rep David Leland (R-Columbus) says it would allow electric companies to submit a portfolio to Ohio’s utility regulators that offer customers ways to use more efficient methods – like smart thermostats or appliance efficiency.

“A kilowatt you don’t use is the cheapest and cleanest kilowatt you can come across. And so this energy reduction program will reduce consumer costs, it will create green energy jobs and it will reduce our carbon footprint," Leland says.

FirstEnergy, the company involved with the HB 6 scandal is the only major investor-owned electric company in Ohio that hasn’t yet signed onto the proposal. Leland says he thinks the bill will get a hearing soon.

Copyright 2021 The Statehouse News Bureau. To see more, visit The Statehouse News Bureau.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.