Experts debate whether incentives and new rules would be worthwhile.

Experts debate whether incentives and new rules would be worthwhile.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ohio could reinforce its struggling manufacturing industry with up to 26,000 jobs by 2010 if the state embraces alternative energy industries, researchers say.
But such a jump start would require economic incentives and clean-energy requirements that state and local officials might decide aren't cost-effective.
Recommendations from some lawmakers and green energy proponents have made little headway in Ohio, and Lt. Gov. Bruce Johnson said he doesn't plan on ramping up efforts to attract alternative energy businesses to the state. Johnson pointed to the state's push for ethanol use and clean-coal generator development and said progress comes from encouragement of energy exploration, not from regulations that can scare off businesses.
"Most of that is natural attributes, not government policy," he told The Plain Dealer for a story Sunday.
Technology expansion
The Regional Economics Application Laboratory and Environmental Law and Policy Center estimates Ohio could secure 26,000 jobs by luring the technology to the state. The estimate is the most optimistic of recent studies, the newspaper reported.
The Renewable Energy Policy Project said Ohio could get 11,600 manufacturing jobs from wind power and 1,200 positions from solar energy. Manufacturing parts for alternative energy systems -- wind turbines and solar panels, for example -- provide the biggest potential gains for Ohio's job market, researchers said.
Green energy firms have started to appear in the state and are looking to expand. First Solar's plant in Perrysburg employs 220 and is set to add 180 jobs by 2007. BioGas Technologies in Norwalk and Technology Management Inc. in Cleveland are working to advance biofuel and fuel cell energy.
Twenty-two states require their utilities to use a certain percentage of alternative energy.
Many people believe that forcing companies to comply with clean energy regulations could hurt more than help, costing the state jobs as companies look elsewhere, environmental economists have said.