HB 15: A Backdoor Route for Wind and Solar?
By Nick Rogers
STATEWIDE - HB 15 went into effect on August 14, and supporters have touted the bill’s emphasis on the creation of more “base load power” stations to support the growing grid strain from the data center influx in Ohio, along with the eradication of the “legacy generation rider,” a “cost-recovery” scheme employed via the much-maligned HB 6. Language in HB 15 seeks to designate underutilized – and possibly toxic – sites for “clean” energy projects, potentially bypassing existing bans on these non-base-load-power projects.
HB 15 has identified former coal mines and brownfields – the latter being “a previously developed land that has been abandoned or underused, and which may carry pollution” – as “priority investment areas.” Investors have shied away from developing these types of environmental black eye properties, but tax incentives (a recurring theme with data center-related issues) may lessen their worries.
Grants are also available for companies willing to take on the necessary cleanup of these sites, an action that could cost a total of $586 million for all documented toxic former coal mine sites alone, according to the U.S Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.
Diane Cherry, deputy director of the Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Coalition (MAREC), said that investors might “…otherwise not see these investments, which can breathe new life into communities, improve energy reliability, provide tax revenue, and lower electricity costs.”
2021’s SB 52 granted local authorities in Ohio far more power over wind and solar farm development than other traditional forms of energy production. According to Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, approximately 1/3 of Ohio counties have banned or limited the development of wind and/or solar farms.
Convincing local authorities to mark properties as priority investment areas could essentially bypass existing local ordinance, “Notwithstanding sections 4906.06 to 4906.14 of the Revised Code.” The Ohio Power Siting Board, which has been given rulemaking power within HB 15, has been at the heart of many of the denials for large wind and solar site development over the past few years.
Bill Stanley, Ohio director for The Nature Conservancy, said, “That [notwithstanding] clause is meant to bypass some of the typical Ohio Power Siting Board procedures, including the procedures for siting in restricted areas.”
Under HB 15, local authorities must designate an area as one of “primary investment” and, if they do, with the blessing of the Siting Board, existing ordinance could potentially be ignored and permitting expedited (45 days as opposed to a year).
This is great news for wind and solar manufacturers, along with “green” energy advocates; not such good news for the many Ohio farmers and residents who have vehemently fought these developments in their communities for years now.
Jefferson County is the first to request such a designation be made; one for the former Sammis Coal Plant run by FirstEnergy, and the other for their Hollow Rock Landfill.
Supporters of HB 15’s priority investment area designation have sought further rule clarification going forward regarding permitting deadlines, notices of public hearings, and application fees.
Cherry said that the language within HB 15 “…clears the path for developers to bring energy projects online quickly and affordably, something Ohio’s consumers and businesses desperately need.”
The irony with the wind/solar ban loophole and expedited permitting process is that these projects do not produce base load power which was heavily stressed by those looking to pass HB 15. Instead, it appears that the bill may be a backdoor way around existing local “clean” energy bans. With the right new politicians in office, a long-standing ban may now vanish at the stroke of a pen.
