Ohio lawmakers, dominated by Republican majorities, have approved and sent to Gov. Mike DeWine (R) legislation amending state law to declare that green energy “includes energy generated by using natural gas as a resource.”
The amendment and accompanying buttressing language, possibly aimed at coal, further defines “green energy” to mean “any energy generated by using an energy resource that does one or more of the following: releases reduced air pollutants, thereby reducing cumulative air emissions, [and] is more sustainable and reliable relative to some fossil fuels.”
The Ohio House of Representatives this week concurred with the Senate’s decision to insert the language into an agriculture bill a week ago. (See Ohio Senate Votes to Declare Natural Gas ‘Green’.) The House approved H.B. 507 by a lopsided 59-33 vote, with two Republicans and one independent joining with 30 Democrats in opposition.
Rep. Juanita Brent (D), an early proponent of the original poultry bill a year ago, said inserting language about natural gas and other issues into an agricultural bill regulating the chicken industry had turned the bill into “the ultimate Christmas tree of a hot mess.”
“If we want to deal with natural gas, and we want to have that deep dive of a conversation, then let’s have that deep dive. But just adding something on, at the last minute, at the last hour, after the bill had been in this chamber and another chamber for months now is … a shame on us. This ain’t green energy. This is bad energy, bad energy for our environment.
“We got bamboozled because [of] this thing that came back from the Senate, with some stuff just totally changing the definition of what green energy is.”
Rep. Kyle Koehler (R), chair of the House Agriculture Committee, urged passage of the amended bill and illustrated the “greenness” of gas by noting that gas produced from a landfill near his home was powering an International Harvester factory. Landfill gas is sometimes referred to as renewable gas, though he did not mention that.
“The amendment also helps companies and large gas users that are subject to environmental, social [and] governance [ESG] requirements by our state,” Koehler said.
Meeting the ESG requirements of companies facing investors demanding sustainable corporate behavior is one of the goals of The Empowerment Alliance (TEA), an anonymously funded 501(c)(4) nonprofit founded in 2019 with Ohio roots.
TEA argues that defining natural gas as green is a way oppose renewable energy efforts proposed by the Biden administration. TEA contacted an Ohio lawmaker who then proposed the amendment.
“We see an attack on natural gas from an investment standpoint with the ESG initiative … trying to stop investment in natural gas infrastructure. And hopefully this [change in state law] will combat that,” said Mitch Given, a Columbus-based consultant representing TEA. “We think ESG is aimed primarily at natural gas, stopping pipeline investment, stopping investment in natural gas power plants.”
Ohio is the first state to adopt the group’s proposed language, Given added, but TEA has plans to make similar proposals in nearby industrial states. The group will continue a campaign to persuade county commissions to approve similar resolutions to show grassroots support. So far, eight commissions have approved such resolutions, according to Given.
“We want to make a statement to the Biden administration that local and state government leaders support natural gas and realize its importance to our economy and the environment,” he said.
TEA argues that the massive switch from coal to gas for power generation is the primary reason the nation’s CO2 emission levels fell in recent years.
Neil Waggoner, a senior spokesman for the Sierra Club in Ohio, dismissed TEA’s arguments. “Gas isn’t green, and it certainly isn’t clean. The legislature is engaging in wishful thinking and codifying a lie.”