A deeper look into Strickland energy plan

COLUMBUS (AP) — At first blush, Gov. Ted Strickland’s commitment to clean energy last week sounded even better than environmentalists had dreamed.

One fourth — yes, a full 25 percent — of all the electricity Ohio produces should be made using alternative energy sources by 2025. Even Environment Ohio, the most vocal renewable energy proponents in the state, had asked only for 20 percent by 2020.

Then came the catch: Only half of the target the Democratic governor laid out in his new energy policy will be required to come from renewable energy — that is, water, solar, wind or biofuel made from combustible farm products. The remainder could take the form of advanced nuclear or clean coal technologies — in other words, variations on the technologies dominating the electric market now.

The operable phrase had changed from “renewable energy” to “renewable and advanced energy.”

Strickland, a former congressman from Appalachia, is well aware of the facts: The number of coal mining jobs in America has fallen from 335,000 in the 1950s to just 79,000 today. Three thousand of those jobs are in Ohio, mostly in the state’s southeastern section where Strickland grew up.

It was highly unlikely that Ohio’s first governor in a generation to hail from that part of Ohio would have carved the coal industry out of his administration’s most significant energy policy statement.

Still, a 12.5-percent target for renewables had Environment Ohio executive director Erin Bower crying foul.

For more, see Tuesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com