While the business group continues to oppose clean-energy mandates and still supports natural-gas expansion, it has become more vocal in recent years in supporting utility-scale solar projects. The Chamber sided with solar companies in two Ohio Supreme Court appeals where the Ohio Power Siting Board had denied permits, and it has intervened in other cases.
Last fall, the Chamber’s president and CEO, Steve Stivers, spoke in support of the proposed Grange Solar project in west central Ohio, which faces opposition from some residents in Logan County.
The support “matters to remind the state, to remind regulators, that solar projects or any kind of economic development [in] Ohio is bigger than someone’s backyard, that all of this is interconnected,” said Doug Herling, vice president of Open Road Renewables, developer of the Grange Solar project.
Ohio clean-energy advocates hope support from the Ohio Chamber and other business groups will help erode a dozen years of entrenched opposition to clean energy by Republican supermajorities in the state General Assembly.
In 2014, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce aligned with investor-owned utility FirstEnergy and fossil-fuel interests as they pushed to halt the state’s modest clean-energy standards. Two years later, it supported a bill to extend the freeze indefinitely, which then-Gov. John Kasichvetoed. In 2019, the Chamber testified that its members were split on HB 6, the law at the heart of the state’s ongoing utility corruption scandal, although the Chamber supported its gutting of Ohio’s energy-efficiency standard.
Clean-energy stakeholders saw a shift begin in 2021, when the Chamber opposed SB 52, which lets counties ban new utility-scale solar projects and most wind farms in unincorporated areas. The law also gave counties and townships ad hoc votes on most solar and wind projects at the Ohio Power Siting Board.
“But no comparable limits [were] placed on natural-gas development or projects,” said Dave Anderson, policy and communications manager for the Energy and Policy Institute, a utility watchdog group that has followed energy politics in the state for years.
The changes have empowered local opponents to take stands against wind and solar projects, often based on political strategies and misinformation provided by fossil-fuel interests. Over the past 15 months, at least four Ohio solar projects have been abandoned due to site-permit challenges.
Meanwhile, the Ohio Chamber adopted a Blueprint for Ohio’s Economic Future in 2022, which identified energy as a core part of infrastructure needed for economic growth. Recent actions supporting solar development follow through on that blueprint, according to Tony Long, the Chamber’s general counsel and director of energy policy.
“We’re all in on trying to find generation sources,” Long said, citing projected growth in energy consumption over the next decade. He noted the importance of technological advances, such as improvements in solar panels, better inverters for energy storage, and grid-enhancing technologies.
The Chamber’s Ohio Supreme Court briefs supporting the Kingwood Solar and Birch Solar projects stressed their economic benefits for customers statewide in reducing wholesale energy prices and attracting employers to the state. On the flip side, project denials inject uncertainty into business decisions. More broadly, “continued denial of renewable project applications may jeopardize Ohio’s future economic growth and energy stability,” the Kingwood Solar brief says. (The Kingwood Solar case is set for oral argument on March 13. Lightsource bp withdrew its appeal and suspended the Birch Solar project on Jan. 9.)
“We believe that power generation decisions should be made on a statewide basis, not a township or county basis, because the grid is a very complicated statewide electric grid,” Stivers said, noting that the Chamber would support legislation to shift power back to the state and away from local communities.
In addition to broader concerns about the state’s energy and infrastructure needs, the Chamber’s positions reflect that some of its members have “stated publicly to shareholders and to employees that they have certain sustainability goals,” Long said. “So they’re looking for energy with less carbon footprint.”
The Chamber’s Ohio Supreme Court briefs noted the “renewable energy appetite” of various members, such as Proctor & Gamble, Amazon, Meta, Google and Microsoft.
Companies with sustainability goals can choose whether to buy energy or other goods and services from within Ohio or outside the state, said Nolan Rutschilling, managing director of energy policy for the Ohio Environmental Council. So, when lawmakers don’t embrace clean energy, “they’re costing their communities jobs and tax revenue.
”The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has also taken a general position supporting renewable energy and nuclear power for producing more emissions-free electricity. Yet a 2024 InfluenceMap analysis showed it actively advocated against various policies to address climate change. State and local chambers of commerce generally act independently, focusing on business issues for their particular areas.
In Ohio, support from business groups encouraged the state to pursue grants and other benefits under the Inflation Reduction Act and other clean-energy programs during the Biden administration, Rutschilling said. The Ohio Environmental Council is in the initial stages of setting up an Ohio Business Energy Partnership with business groups, companies, and other environmental organizations, he added.
Yet Republicans who favor fossil-fuel development over clean energy still control the state government. And Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman and Ohio Senate President Rob McColley have substantial control over the legislative agenda.
McColley was a primary sponsor of SB 52, the law that allows local governments to block certain renewable projects, and has said he wants state policy to create more investment in natural gas. Huffman has taken the position that renewables don’t produce enough electricity and can’t compete with natural gas and nuclear power. (Financial advisory firm Lazard reported in 2024 that the levelized cost of utility-scale solar and wind can be cheaper than or in the range of combined-cycle gas.)
As energy policy develops this year, Long said the Chamber would support changes to SB 52’s limits on renewable energy facilities, by centering decision-making back at the state level. “If we’re going to have a state policy for energy, we need a state policy for energy, and not kind of a local, here-and-there sort of policy.”
“It’s probably a heavy lift to put the genie back in the bottle” on all of the law’s current limits on renewable-energy development, Long continued. “But at the same time, if we’re going to get a comprehensive energy plan, maybe we should look at the power siting board process…and come back to more of a state-focused energy policy.”
Ohio Senate Democratic Whip Kent Smith said business group support for renewable energy matters because they “are, at their very core, capitalists. They’re hearing it from their members that the new energy economy is a growing sector. And for Ohio to not want to play in the new energy economy just takes money out of people’s pocketbooks here.
”While Smith hopes clean-energy legislation will make progress, he remains skeptical. In his view, too much of Ohio’s energy policy has been “driven by political contributions and investor utilities’ influence on Capitol Square.” Among other things, he wants legislation to repeal the HB 6 coal subsidies, provide more protection from utility shutoffs, and “get the politics out of your utility bills.”
This story first published in Canary Media. Read the original here.
