B*gg*r Thy Neighbor

Here’s how the free market works in Ohio: Large utility companies get together with Republican lawmakers to write legislation rolling back the state’s environmental standards. The industry lobby then shepherds Senate Bill 310 through both houses, and Governor Kasich, once a strong proponent of renewable energy and fracking regulations, signs it into law. Almost immediately, FirstEnergy, the huge utility company, announces it is ending its efficiency programs – even as it simultaneously lobbies the Public Utility Commission to require distribution companies to buy energy from its two old and uncompetitive power plants.

No, no, folks, this isn’t blatant politics. It’s “the free enterprise system.”

The law’s supporters have the gall to say they are motivated to help the poor and that Ohio no longer needs alternative energy because huge new natural gas discoveries have driven down energy prices.

Gutting clean air standards doesn't just affect Ohio. For years, the prevailing southwest winds have blown the state’s industrial waste over its neighbors to the northeast, causing those states to sue the Environmental Protection Agency in 1984 over acid rain and again in 2003 over air pollution.

I can never remember. Is it “beggar thy neighbor” or “bugger thy neighbor”?

Meanwhile, UN negotiators are currently meeting in Peru to draft a global accord on greenhouse gas pollution; the presidents of China and the United States have agreed to significant cuts in carbon emissions; and the EPA has proposed strong new regulations for coal-fired power plants.

And the next Congress can’t wait to eviscerate all three.