ohio

Concrete cracks in the containment structure aren't the reason for anti-nuclear fervor by Rep. Dennis Kucinich U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-OHThe ongoing saga of anti-nuclear opposition to the continued operation of FirstEnergy's (NYSE:FE) Davis-Besse nuclear reactor located on the shores of Lake Erie is linked to a gift to voters...[read more]

Texan wind energy developer poised to construct first U.S. offshore wind turbine, even as policy uncertainty and tricky project financing harries competing projectsWith some five gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind energy projects in the works, the long-promised dawn of offshore wind in America could be at hand. And although the most...[read more]

Replacement of the reactor vessel head will start in October 2011 FirstEnergy (NYSE:FE) Nuclear Operating Company's Davis-Besse 893 MW PWR at Oak harbor, OH, near Toledo, will enter a fuel outage in October 2011, which is earlier than called for in the usual outage schedule. During this outage, which will extend into 2012, a new reactor...[read more]

Today, we have an op-ed published in the Presidents' Day edition of The Plain Dealer, the largest newspaper in Ohio. The op-ed, "Winning Ohio's energy future," arrives one day before President Obama visits Cleveland to promote the administration's "winning the future" agenda and host a business forum on entrepreneurship and innovation.Co...[read more]

One aspect of blogging I never anticipated was the degree to which it would put me on the radar screen of public relations agencies. Not a day goes by that I don't receive at least a half dozen emails from various PR firms seeking publicity for a new product, project, initiative or campaign. Their clients include companies, government...[read more]

The State of Ohio on Wednesday took a big step toward lowering the barriers to entry for building/installing renewable energy facilities across the state. Governor Ted Strickland issued an Executive Order eliminating the state’s tangible personal tax and real property tax for advanced and renewable energy project facilities. The move...[read more]

We were in Columbus, Ohio over the weekend and early this week and, not surprisingly, the airwaves were full of news of a new ad campaign to rehabilitate ethanol and, in the words of one of the news stories we heard, “correct myths about ethanol”. So are they saying that it’s a myth that the ethanol production that receives generous...[read more]

Via Tim Haab at Environmental Economics, a news story from The Columbus Dispatch reporting that five Columbus suburbs were ending a program in which the communities bought gas on behalf of residents that didn’t opt for another supplier. “There’s really not a need for government to be in it,” said Dana McDaniel, Dublin’s assistant city...[read more]

Oil prices did spike to triple-digit levels in early 2008, then drop sharply. But think about the fact that right now, with the world economy still seriously depressed, oil is at $80 a barrel. This suggests to me that high oil prices are largely caused by fundamentals. And it also suggests that resource constraints will be an issue if...[read more]

In Monday’s Los Angeles Times, I write about the migration of renewable energy firms from California and the Southwest to the nation’s industrial heartland to tap the down-and-out region’s manufacturing might: At a recent solar energy conference in Anaheim, economic development officials from Ohio talked up a state that seemed far...[read more]

DOE fails to get the $30 million it promised last August The Energy & Water appropriation, sent by Congress this week to the White House, does not include $30 million promised by the Department of Energy (DOE) to USEC (NYSE:USU) to help it with its plans to build a uranium enrichment plant in Piketon, OH. It is the second time in...[read more]

Departmental colleague, forestry/environmental/climate change economist, Nobel peace prize recipient (he was one of approx. 2,000,000 people on the IPCC panel that won the Nobel with Al Gore), Opie Taylor lookalike (see picture at the right), and all-around good guy, Professor Brent Sohngen, had a featured editorial in the Columbus...[read more]

The continuing saga of the USEC project to build a new enrichment facility at the Piketon, Ohio facility using a recently developed and tested technology called the American Centrifuge is getting more intriguing each day. On July 28, 2009, publications specializing in stock market reporting contained blurbs explaining the activity in...[read more]

Students tell me they like real world context for quiz questions.  So, students of Env-Econ, here you go:  Using the basic tools of supply and demand described here, predict the effect of a recession (decreased income for consumers) combined with increasing supplies on the price of natural gas in Ohio. Read...[read more]

Day 4 in Central Ohio with no power to hundreds of thousands of residents.  But there's an upside.  From the Columbus Dispatch:As thousands of Ohioans go through another day without power, perhaps there's a silver, or even green, lining. Their carbon footprints -- the measure of carbon dioxide they contribute to global...[read more]