The push to pass Ohio Senate Bill 275: Revamping the state's net metering policy

We recently published a blog post about Senate Bill 275, which proposes solutions to critical issues surrounding Ohio's net metering policies. Ohio Senator Matt Dolan, who has been working on this distributed generation initiative for almost a year, sponsors SB 275.

In that blog post, we noted the main issues with the state's current policy -- solar rooftop ease and accessibility, grid stress, and the need for more resources to address distressed properties like brownfields, landfills, abandoned mine lands and more. The new bill aims to alleviate these issues by introducing virtual net metering in Ohio.

Sen. Dolan is aggressively working to educate the public on the benefits of this legislation and recently published an op-ed on the matter, titled "The responsibility of providing enough energy to meet demand."

In it, he stresses the importance energy policies have on Ohio's overall economic landscape and the state's future success.

"Recently there has been incredible economic development success as Intel, Honda, datacenters and other economic wins have been announced. These successes for Ohio bring with them the responsibility of providing enough energy to meet their demands. While at the same time, Ohio must continue to grow its economy and create the jobs of the future. This all requires more energy, and recent reports indicate that we may experience grid stress in the near future — unless we have more generation."

Sen. Dolan also noted that the SB275 is a bipartisan piece of legislation, and said it does not add any tax credits or subsidies for any source of energy.

"My bill focuses on generating electricity for economic development so, unlike any other legislation in Ohio, the energy created can be powered by alternative energy, natural gas and a host of other energy power sources and technology. My bill does not pick a winner and loser. It is a market driven approach by letting the commercial user decide its source. My bill also resolves an ongoing political dispute on siting energy projects. Any new energy generation, from any source, cannot be done on agricultural lands. SB-275 limits the development to siting on distressed properties throughout the state. Thus, the legislation will address grid stress while at the same time driving significant private sector investment into redeveloping distressed and under-utilized properties."

To read the full op-ed on Cleveland.com, click here.

Organizations such as the Citizen Utility Board and the Buckeye Institute are hosting educational sessions with lawmakers to clarify SB 275. Additionally, these groups are engaging with interested parties to gather opinions and offer feedback on the proposed legislation.

McDonald Hopkins will continue to monitor SB 275 and will provide updates as they come.