Ohio is first state to roll back renewable energy standards

Ohio became the nation’s first state to roll back renewable energy standards after the state House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 310 and Gov. John Kasich recently signed the measure.

The standards previously required the state’s utilities to sell more solar and wind energy each year and charged them with finding efficiency solutions for their customers. Passage of the bill means the standards are put on hold until 2017, when a committee could permanently freeze them.

Environmental groups estimate that consumers have saved a combined $1 billion on their bills over the life of the standards. In additions, the standards have brought in an estimated $1 billion in investment commitments.

“With this legislation, Gov. Kasich is moving the state backwards while monopoly utilities will see even greater profits,” Sierra Club campaign representative Daniel Sawmiller said. “Ohioans can now expect higher electricity bills, fewer jobs in the clean energy manufacturing and construction industries, and increased pollution.

(http://ecowatch.com/2014/06/13/ohio-gov-john-kasich-renewable-energy-freeze/)

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.