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Advocates for sustainable energy and solar developers wanting to expand their projects in the state are finding an unexpected ally in the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.
The industry organization has been more outspoken in recent years in favor of utility-scale solar projects, even if it still opposes clean-energy standards and supports the expansion of natural gas. The Chamber has interfered in other cases and supported solar companies in two Ohio Supreme Court appeals in which the Ohio Power Siting Board had refused permits. Steve Stivers, the president and CEO of the Chamber, gave a speech last autumn endorsing the proposed Grange Solar project in west central Ohio, which is opposed by some Logan County citizens.
According to Doug Herling, vice president of Open Road Renewables, the company behind the Grange Solar project, the support is important to remind the state and regulators that solar projects and all forms of economic development in Ohio are greater than a person’s backyard and that they are all interconnected.
Advocates for clean energy in Ohio are hopeful that the Ohio Chamber and other business organizations can assist weaken the state General Assembly’s Republican supermajority’s steadfast resistance to clean energy, which has been in place for a dozen years.
The Ohio Chamber of Commerce joined forces with fossil fuel interests and investor-owned utility FirstEnergy in 2014 to oppose the state’s lax clean energy regulations. It backed a bill to prolong the freeze indefinitely two years later, but then-Governor John Kasich vetoed it. Despite supporting the weakening of Ohio’s energy-efficiency standard, the Chamber testified in 2019 that its members were divided on HB6, the statute at the center of the state’s current utility corruption crisis.
When the Chamber rejected SB52, which permits counties to exclude new utility-scale solar projects and the majority of wind farms in unincorporated regions, clean energy stakeholders witnessed a change in 2021. Additionally, the statute granted townships and counties ad hoc votes on the majority of wind and solar projects before the Ohio Power Siting Board.
However, according to Dave Anderson, policy and communications manager for the Energy and Policy Institute, a utility watchdog organization that has been following energy politics in the state for years, no such restrictions [were] put on natural-gas development or projects.
The modifications have given local opponents more authority to oppose wind and solar projects, frequently using political maneuvers and false information supplied by fossil fuel companies. Due to site-permit issues, at least four Ohio solar projects have been shelved in the last 15 months.
A blueprint for Ohio’s economic future, which was adopted by the Ohio Chamber in 2022, named energy as a crucial component of the infrastructure required for economic expansion. Tony Long, general counsel and director of energy policy for the Chamber, said recent measures to boost solar development are a continuation of that strategy.
Citing anticipated increases in energy use over the next ten years, Long stated, “We’re all in on trying to find generation sources.” He emphasized the significance of technology advancements, including better grid-enhancing devices, inverters for energy storage, and solar panel upgrades.
In their Ohio Supreme Court arguments in favor of the Kingwood Solar and Birch Solar projects, the Chamber emphasized the financial advantages of these projects for consumers throughout the state by lowering wholesale energy costs and drawing in employers. Conversely, project denials cause ambiguity in corporate choices. More generally, the Kingwood Solar brief warns that Ohio’s future economic growth and energy stability may be at risk if renewable project proposals are consistently denied. Oral arguments in the Kingwood Solar lawsuit are scheduled for March 13. On January 9, Lightsource BP retracted its appeal and put the Birch Solar project on hold.)
The Chamber would support legislation to return power to the state and away from local communities, Stivers stated. “We believe that power generation decisions should be made on a statewide basis, not a township or county basis, because the grid is a very complicated statewide electric grid.”
According to Long, the Chamber’s stances are a reflection of the state’s energy and infrastructure requirements as well as the fact that some of its members have openly expressed their sustainability objectives to employees and shareholders.They are therefore searching for energy that has a lower carbon footprint. Several members, including Proctor & Gamble, Amazon, Meta, Google, and Microsoft, have expressed a desire for renewable energy, according to the Chamber’s Ohio Supreme Court arguments.
According to Nolan Rutschilling, managing director of energy policy for the Ohio Environmental Council, businesses with sustainability objectives have the option of purchasing energy or other goods and services from within Ohio or from outside the state. Legislators are therefore sacrificing their towns employment and tax money when they reject clean energy.
In order to generate more emissions-free electricity, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has also adopted a general stance in favor of nuclear power and renewable energy. However, a 2024InfluenceMap investigation revealed that it aggressively opposed a number of climate change-related measures. In general, state and local chambers of commerce operate autonomously and concentrate on local business concerns.
According to Rutschilling, business associations in Ohio supported the state’s efforts to seek grants and other advantages under the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act and other clean-energy initiatives. He said that the Ohio Environmental Council is currently in the early phases of establishing an Ohio Business Energy Partnership involving corporations, business associations, and other environmental groups.
However, the state government is still controlled by Republicans who prioritize the growth of fossil fuels above clean energy. The legislative agenda is also heavily influenced by Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, a Republican from Napoleon, and Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, a Republican from Lima.
McColley has stated that he wants state policy to encourage more investment in natural gas and was a major proponent of SB52, the law that permits local governments to obstruct specific renewable projects. According to Huffman, renewable energy sources cannot compete with nuclear and natural gas for electricity production. (In 2024, the financial advising firm Lazard stated that utility-scale wind and solar can have levelized costs that are lower than or comparable to combined-cycle gas.)
Long stated that by returning decision-making to the state level, the Chamber would support modifications to SB52’s restrictions on renewable energy plants as energy policy is developed this year.If a state energy strategy is to be implemented, it must be a state policy rather than a local, patchwork-style policy.
Restoring all of the law’s existing restrictions on the development of renewable energy is likely going to be a difficult task, Long added.However, if a comprehensive energy strategy is to be obtained, perhaps we should examine the power siting board process and return to a more state-focused energy policy.
Since business groups are fundamentally capitalists, their support for renewable energy is important, according to Ohio Senate Democratic Whip Kent Smith, a Democrat from Euclid. Their members are telling them that the new energy economy is a sector that is expanding. Additionally, Ohio’s refusal to participate in the new energy economy only depletes local residents’ finances.
Smith is still pessimistic about the progress of clean-energy legislation. He believes that investor utilities’ influence on Capitol Square and political contributions have shaped too much of Ohio’s energy policy. He wants legislation that would, among other things, remove the HB6 coal subsidies, increase protection against electric shutoffs, and remove politics from utility bills.
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