
The Ohio senator who introduced legislation to scrap Ohio's renewable energy mandates and goals says he has revamped the bill and expects it to pass through a committee next week.
Sen. Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) told The Associated Press Wednesday that the revised version of Senate Bill (SB) 58 would keep Ohio's renewables rules in place through December 2018, when point thresholds for renewable energy purchased in-state would be lifted so "people can get it wherever it's cheapest so long as it's deliverable" to the Ohio power grid. The Ohio Senate’s Public Utilities Committee—which Seitz chairs—planned to meet last week and possibly vote on SB 58 prior to an abrupt cancellation.
Ohio's original renewable energy laws—under SB 221—were established in 2008. They include a "25 by '25" mandate, which require utilities to produce 12.5 percent of their energy from renewable sources and another 12.5 percent from "advanced energy" sources like clean coal or a state-of-the-art nuclear reactor by 2025. This time, Seitz says he's "reasonably optimistic" about getting committee approval.
His revision also includes:
- Eliminating Canadian hydropower as an eligible alternative
- Capping benefits returned to utilities from energy efficiency
- Allowing the use of hydropower produced at a location along the Ohio River
- Accepting energy from anaerobic digesters and methane gas converters for meeting alternative targets.
Though advocacy groups and other proponents say the laws have brought investments, jobs and reduced emissions to the state, Seitz believes the mandates are unconstitutional and lead to larger bills for the neighbors of those who put renewable energy back on the grid.
However, the Ohio State University’s Center for Resilience predicts the opposite, projecting an average electricity bill that is 4 percent higher than current levels and a loss of $1.6 billion in proposed wind projects.
Visit EcoWatch’s RENEWABLES page for more related news on this topic.
At first glance, you wouldn't think avocados and almonds could harm bees; but a closer look at how these popular crops are produced reveals their potentially detrimental effect on pollinators.
Migratory beekeeping involves trucking millions of bees across the U.S. to pollinate different crops, including avocados and almonds. Timothy Paule II / Pexels / CC0
<p>According to <a href="https://www.fromthegrapevine.com/israeli-kitchen/beekeeping-how-to-keep-bees" target="_blank">From the Grapevine</a>, American avocados also fully depend on bees' pollination to produce fruit, so farmers have turned to migratory beekeeping as well to fill the void left by wild populations.</p><p>U.S. farmers have become reliant upon the practice, but migratory beekeeping has been called exploitative and harmful to bees. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/10/health/avocado-almond-vegan-partner/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported that commercial beekeeping may injure or kill bees and that transporting them to pollinate crops appears to negatively affect their health and lifespan. Because the honeybees are forced to gather pollen and nectar from a single, monoculture crop — the one they've been brought in to pollinate — they are deprived of their normal diet, which is more diverse and nourishing as it's comprised of a variety of pollens and nectars, Scientific American reported.</p><p>Scientific American added how getting shuttled from crop to crop and field to field across the country boomerangs the bees between feast and famine, especially once the blooms they were brought in to fertilize end.</p><p>Plus, the artificial mass influx of bees guarantees spreading viruses, mites and fungi between the insects as they collide in midair and crawl over each other in their hives, Scientific American reported. According to CNN, some researchers argue that this explains why so many bees die each winter, and even why entire hives suddenly die off in a phenomenon called colony collapse disorder.</p>Avocado and almond crops depend on bees for proper pollination. FRANK MERIÑO / Pexels / CC0
<p>Salazar and other Columbian beekeepers described "scooping up piles of dead bees" year after year since the avocado and citrus booms began, according to Phys.org. Many have opted to salvage what partial colonies survive and move away from agricultural areas.</p><p>The future of pollinators and the crops they help create is uncertain. According to the United Nations, nearly half of insect pollinators, particularly bees and butterflies, risk global extinction, Phys.org reported. Their decline already has cascading consequences for the economy and beyond. Roughly 1.4 billion jobs and three-quarters of all crops around the world depend on bees and other pollinators for free fertilization services worth billions of dollars, Phys.org noted. Losing wild and native bees could <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/wild-bees-crop-shortage-2646849232.html" target="_self">trigger food security issues</a>.</p><p>Salazar, the beekeeper, warned Phys.org, "The bee is a bioindicator. If bees are dying, what other insects beneficial to the environment... are dying?"</p>EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
Australia is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. It is home to more than 7% of all the world's plant and animal species, many of which are endemic. One such species, the Pharohylaeus lactiferus bee, was recently rediscovered after spending nearly 100 years out of sight from humans.
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FedEx's entire parcel pickup and delivery fleet will become 100 percent electric by 2040, according to a statement released Wednesday. The ambitious plan includes checkpoints, such as aiming for 50 percent electric vehicles by 2025.
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