Senate Bill 234 would establish an adjudicatory process that would undermine public participation and hinder economic development.
GEO has supported and promoted wind energy development since the organization’s founding in 2000. GEO played a significant role in wind resource monitoring and assessment, including at the site of the first utility-scale turbines in Bowling Green and a 50-meter meteorology tower on the Cleveland Crib that confirmed the potential for off-shore wind in Lake Erie.
The economic benefits of the wind industry are well documented. Wind power in Ohio generates more than clean energy; it provides employment, significant capital investment, much-needed state and local tax revenue, and lease payments to rural landowners. Ohio has more wind-related manufacturing facilities than any other state in the nation, with 61 locations producing components for the wind industry.
The Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) currently employs an adjudicatory process in which local residents, energy service providers, energy consumers, and other interested stakeholders have an equal opportunity to participate in public hearings, as well as judicial proceedings where they can present evidence, call witnesses, provide testimony, employ cross-examination, and negotiate stipulations and conditions for specific energy development projects. GEO believes that more effort should be devoted to assisting local residents in this process, rather than establishing a new process that fails to represent all interests and undermines economic development.
Read the full testimony submitted by GEO February 11, 2020.