Your Voice is Needed!
The new ECO Advocacy Squad invites you to call the Statehouse! A call script, list of phone numbers, and information about both HB15 and SB is linked here. This month we asking for everyone to focus on HB15/SB2 – parallel energy bills moving quickly through the Ohio House and Ohio Senate with almost weekly hearings.
Both energy bills could be voted out of committee by the end of the week, so this may be our last chance to have substantive influence on the content. If you know leaders in city government, please let them know that these bills include the possibility of major gas plants being built in residential areas with only 45 days’ notice without city approval.
Mayors and city council members need to call these energy committees ASAP to demand the bills be changed to require their approval. With that said, there is a lot to like in both these bills that are aimed at getting rid of HB6’s excessive favors to utilities and charges to customers.
Phone Calls:
A script for talking about SB2 and HB15 along with lists of phone numbers are included to help you gather your thoughts. The call script should be edited by each caller to express their ideas in their own words. We’d like to urge both the Ohio House Energy Committees and the Ohio Senate Energy Committee to add more renewable energy and energy efficiency policies into these bills which seem to prioritize gas over renewables to fill Ohio’s perceived additional energy needs due to all the data centers being built here.
After calling the committee chair and ranking member, try calling folks from the middle and bottom of the list since many other people may have started at the top. Also call your own representative and senator.
Written Testimony:
You are also encouraged to submit written testimony as an Interested Party about either bill at least 24 hours before next week’s hearings. A witness slip and your written testimony must be emailed 24 hours ahead of the next scheduled hearing. The full text of SB2 and the Senate Witness form are linked here. The full text of HB15 and the House Witness form is here.
Information about HB15 and SB2
Examples of written testimony on SB2 and written testimony on HB15 are linked here to provide inspiration as you begin to compose your ideas. An excellent slidedeck overview of these bills created by Cathy Cowen Becker of Save Ohio Parks is linked here. Read Cathy Cowen Becker’s op-ed in the Ohio Capital Journal here.
ECO: Environmental Coalition of Ohio
