Columbus Residents: Vote Yes on Issue 1
Voting for our environment goes beyond voting for climate action candidates
Early voting for the 2020 General Election has started. Many of us already have our voting plan in place and have researched candidates’ stances on environmental issues. But for Columbus residents, there’s another major opportunity to impact climate change and support our environment on the ballot.
Residents have the power to make the electricity we use reflect our values by voting YES on Issue 1. Together, we can act on climate change by demanding cleaner, local energy that won’t change our electric bills by voting for this important ballot initiative.
Issue 1 would give the City of Columbus the ability to buy electricity on behalf of its residents as a group, which is called community choice aggregation. Community choice aggregation has been put to use by many Ohio cities since the early 2000s when it was first enabled by state law. Many Ohio communities, like Cincinnati, Cleveland, Worthington, and 14 southeast Ohio communities have used this tool to go 100% renewable.
By banding together, we can use our bulk buying power to ensure we use 100% renewable energy at competitive prices to power our homes and small businesses. This will put Columbus on the map as the Midwest’s largest community choice aggregator and showcase our city as a sustainable, thriving Midwest city where folks want to live, work and play while enjoying clean air to breathe.
The people most impacted by climate change are often the most vulnerable in our society, and that is true here in Columbus as well. In fact, a 2015 report conducted by the Ohio State University identified the impacts and the vulnerabilities that Columbus residents face with a warming climate. Residents can expect to experience an additional three to seven weeks per year of extreme temperatures exceeding 90F degrees, increased asthma attacks and other respiratory conditions due to poor air quality. And, according to the 2018 Columbus Climate Adaptation Plan, the city is already seeing the effects of climate change: average temperatures continue to rise faster than the national and global average and we continue to experience increased heavy rain events.
Fighting climate change means fighting to protect all Columbus residents, particularly those that are already disproportionately impacted by warmer, wetter conditions, and worsening air quality. According to the American Lung Association’s 2020 State of the Air Report, central Ohio, including Columbus, is home to more than 2.5 million residents that are vulnerable to increased asthma and heat-related illness from poor air quality attributable, in part, to Ohio’s heavy reliance on coal-fired power plants. Columbus families and small businesses suffer greater economic hardship due to longer, more intense heat waves because they may need to increase the usage of air conditioning over spring, summer and fall. Families may also see increased healthcare costs from treatments for increased asthma and heat-related illnesses.
Building local clean energy projects can ensure a transition away from coal, reduced carbon pollution and cleaner air to breath in Columbus’ poorest air quality neighborhoods. And we can employ Ohioans and train our city’s residents to be the skilled workforce bringing these clean energy projects to life.
In total, over 100 million people now live in a community with an official 100% clean, renewable energy target. In Ohio, that includes Cleveland, Cincinnati, Lakewood, and South Euclid.
Columbus’s 100% renewable energy commitment for its estimated 1.7 million megawatt hours of electricity, particularly with a substantial portion of this supply met by renewable projects right here in central Ohio and within the Buckeye State, will reduce our annual carbon emissions by 1.2 million metric tons. In less wonky terms, passing Issue 1 will allow us to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by an amount that would be about equal to taking 260,000 cars off the road.
In light of failed leadership at the state and national level to address climate change, bold action at the city level to address climate change is more urgent than ever and we must wield all the tools we can.
For these reasons and more, the Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund has proudly endorsed Columbus Issue 1.
We’re proud to stand with other environmental partners—including the Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy, Environmental Law and Policy Center Action Fund, Green Energy Ohio, Ohio Conservative Energy Forum, Ohio Citizen Action, Moms Clean Air Force, The Nature Conservancy in Ohio, Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund, Power a Clean Future Ohio, as well as Sierra Club and Ready for 100, Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund, Sierra Club, The Nature Conservancy in Ohio, Moms Clean Air Force, and Power a Clean Future Ohio—in encouraging Columbus voters to vote Yes on Issue 1.
Columbus is a young, smart city with progressive thinkers dedicated to creating a better future for everyone who calls Columbus home. By passing Issue 1, we are using our collective voice to say we choose clean energy over dirty sources of energy, we choose cleaner air and cleaner water, and we choose to have the clean energy jobs of today and tomorrow to grow right here in our city.