Wednesday
Jul242019
Thanks and "spanks" needed in Ohio re: passage of dangerously bad House Bill 6 (nuclear and coal bailout, that guts renewables and efficiency)
Becca Pollard (Sierra Club/Beyond Coal) action alert:
After a tremendous grassroots effort including lots of strong opposition testimony at hearings, letters to the editors of papers all over the state, and tons of phone calls and tweets to legislators asking them to vote no on the extremely unpopular nuke and coal bailout bill, the House, with the support of 9 Dems, concurred with the Senate version of HB6 yesterday, and shortly thereafter Governor DeWine signed.the bill.
At a time when strong action to curb emissions is urgently needed, a number of Democrats betrayed their constituents and voted yes on a bill that will not only bail out dirty coal plants, but will roll back our clean energy standards. Without their support the bill would have failed and they need to know that Ohioans are paying attention and are not happy with them. Please call and tweet at these Ohio Dems and hold them accountable for their role in passing this terrible piece of legislation that will accelerate the climate crisis, make our air quality even worse, and make hard working Ohioans pay to keep uneconomic old plants online.
Senate Dem HB6 supporters
[Find your Ohio State Senator, here.]
House Dem HB6 supporters
On the flip side, a number Ohio Republicans broke with their party and voted against the bill. Senator Uecker in Southwest Ohio even went so far as to make a Facebook post criticizing the bill and explaining why he doesn't think we should get rid of our clean energy standards right now:
"I objected to the renewable energy mandates proposed by Governor Strickland ten years ago. Later, when I saw the many businesses and jobs created in Southwest Ohio by the mandates, I decided it wasn’t a good idea to pull the rug out from under an emerging industry."
Please thank these Republican legislators for voting no on HB6!
Senate GOP Opponents
House GOP Opponents
For a complete list of House and Senate votes and the legislators' phone numbers and Twitter handles see this spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QxwyHxmSZHQv_-MueduxcBFqw3MgOmEG9Jd2gZlW0So/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QxwyHxmSZHQv_-MueduxcBFqw3MgOmEG9Jd2gZlW0So/edit?usp=sharing
Big thanks to our new BCC organizing intern Maritza for helping to pull all this info together!
Let me know if you have any questions!
Becca Pollard
Ohio Associate Organizing Representative
Sierra Club, Beyond Coal
July 24, 2019