Pro-Coal Is Pro-Worker, Pro-Trump

President Trump’s resounding electoral victory last year marked a pivotal shift toward embracing American energy dominance and protecting workers whose jobs have been threatened by Democrats’ war on coal. State lawmakers must now do their part to back President Trump’s pro-energy agenda and support energy workers.  Two bills currently moving through the Ohio state legislature, HB 15 and SB 2, have the potential to align the state’s energy policies with those of the President, thereby supporting good-paying jobs at the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation (OVEC) coal plant in Gallia County.  The OVEC plant employs 275 workers directly and another 50…

Oil and Gas Industry is Vital to Ohio

The United States is the top oil-producing country in the world and a net exporter. This is thanks to the shale boom that revolutionized the industry with a new innovative and safer way to extract oil. To most that might not mean much, but to energy-rich states where so many jobs and so much of the budget is dependent on the industry it means their and their communities’ livelihoods are contingent on the industry’s success. In an op-ed in The Columbus Dispatch three Ohio commissioners – Jerry Echemann, Belmont County Commissioner, Skip Gardner, Guernsey County Commissioner, and Paul Coffland, Harrison County Commissioner…

Biden Unveils Climate Change Plan to Revamp the Energy Sector

Today, Joe Biden rolled out a more aggressive plan to fight climate change that seeks to balance progressives’ demands for bold action on climate change against protecting swing-state jobs in a struggling economy. Biden’s plan includes spending $2 trillion on clean energy over the next four years and setting a 100% clean-electricity standard by 2035, people briefed on the proposal said. The new plan goes further than the $1.7 trillion over 10 years proposal he offered during the Democratic primary. It’s clear Biden is clawing for the approval of progressives in his own party, having changed his previous plan to…

A Fracking Ban Would Cost Ohio Billions

Ohio is one of the top producers of natural gas in the U.S., which has led to a wide variety of benefits for the state. The Heartland Institute outlined some of these benefits, which are particularly important to remember in these challenging times. The development of the Utica shale play in Ohio has turned the state into the fifth-largest producer of natural gas in the United States. This massive increase in domestic shale development, led by fracking, has caused natural gas prices to plummet in Ohio, saving state residents and businesses more than $40 billion from 2006 to 2016… Fracking is often talked…

What Happens When A Power Plant Shuts Its Doors?

For eco-activist groups, shutting down power plants is the ultimate goal. But what happens when they succeed and a plant in a rural town shuts down? Disaster strikes. The Washington Post this week shed light on this tragic situation, profiling what happened during the past year in Adams County, Ohio, which saw two coal plants shut down last May. Before closing, the plants provided 700 high-paying jobs. The Washington Post explains that the plant closures were devastating. “But in places like Adams County, with a population of about 28,000 and already one of the poorest corners of Ohio, the death of a coal plant also can…