News roundup: State papers editorialize in favor of EPA rule

on June 4, 2014 | 3 min read

Yesterday highlighted national papers who spoke out in favor of the EPA’s new rules designed to cut our carbon dioxide emissions. Today, there’s more from state and regional papers, reflecting the significant public support for tackling climate change.

The Toledo Blade editorial board pointed out that due to the possible freeze placed on the state’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard, Governor Kasich should veto S.B. 310 as part of his plan to reduce Ohio’s carbon emissions:

President Obama’s proposal to cut carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants is reasonable, flexible, and likely to improve the nation’s environment and economy. …Ohio will find it especially — and needlessly — hard to comply with the plan and realize its benefits for the state and its people.
[T]he state will have plenty of options. It can promote renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, and advanced energy, such as nuclear power, fuel cells, and clean coal. It can encourage more-efficient use of energy.
But Ohio’s government is already ruling out most of these options. Lawmakers have passed, and Governor Kasich has said he will sign, Senate Bill 310, which would make Ohio the first state to repudiate its standards for energy efficiency and alternative energy.
…Governor Kasich still has time to veto SB 310, making clear to Ohioans whose votes he seeks in his re-election campaign this year that he places their interests ahead of those of fossil-fuel industries and change-averse utilities. If the governor has presidential aspirations in 2016, a veto also would demonstrate his capacity for national leadership. His signature on the bill will show the opposite.

The Akron Beacon Journal also published its own editorial on the new rule and S.B. 310.

Massachusetts’s South Coast Today urged readers to develop new energy technologies like renewables, fueling innovation and boosting our economy:

The president's plan — to be administered through the Environmental Protection Agency — would allow states to set their own path to carbon dioxide reductions and give them credit for the work done so far.
In Massachusetts, the fastest growing job growth is in the renewable energy sector, from development to deployment, lab coat to blue collar. Incentives to move toward renewables — hydro-electric, wind and solar — have made the difference in the commonwealth, and should do the same across the country.
States that get the majority of their electricity from coal plants will receive accommodations, and states like Massachusetts will be expected to keep up the good work and do better still. This approach will allow and encourage innovation, which will lead to more and better jobs.

New Jersey’s Star-Ledger celebrated the health benefits of cleaner air, not to mention the gains to be had from investments in clean energy like wind power:

President Obama’s announcement yesterday of new carbon rules to fight global warming is the most important thing he’s done in office, along with health care reform. Not only will it force reductions in carbon pollution from our nation’s coal-fired power plants, it will put a burner under research into green technologies, which in the end is our only hope to reduce the threat of climate change.
[C]ompanies will invest more in alternatives such as solar and wind power. Our government should be supporting more of this research already; at least now, it has a greater motivation to do so.
We have a responsibility to take the first steps — and Obama clearly hopes to use this initiative to prod the rest of the world to action.

Be sure to check out this week’s other roundups: