To the editor:
As 2020 continues to unfold and manifest into a year that feels like it was a long time coming, we are approaching a critical election. Local issues are coming to the forefront as activists across Columbus organize to educate the public on important races up and down our local ticket. One of the most important votes we can cast is a local ballot initiative — Clean Columbus — Issue 1. It will create a change in the environmental landscape of Columbus forever. As we continue to apply pressure for a Green New Deal from our federal and state leaders to combat climate change, the public must vote to make big changes right at home.
The Sierra Club and many other environmental and public health leaders (myself and many Ohio State students included) have been calling upon the city of Columbus to act on climate and better manage how we buy our energy. Right now, most of the energy that powers our homes and computers comes from coal and natural gas. After a long period of inaction, Columbus is finally moving forward, answering the public’s call to put Community Choice Aggregation on the ballot this fall Nov. 3. According to the Sierra Club, more than 400 Ohio communities have approved electric Community Choice Aggregation on the ballot — a way to use the bulk purchasing power of all the residents and small businesses in a community to buy down the cost of electricity. It’s a smart policy and helps save money. Many communities, such as Cincinnati, have taken the initiative to purchase 100 percent clean, renewable energy. Columbus is taking it a step further and has written a clean energy mandate into its aggregation language. This means, for the rest of our city’s future, we could have clean energy powering our homes and businesses.
It is estimated that with Columbus going 100 percent renewable, we would eliminate almost 20 percent of the total carbon emissions from our current use. With the passage of Issue 1, we can reduce harmful emissions that are devastating our climate and impacting our respiratory health. This is huge for Columbus and Ohio, as we know one in 10 Ohio adults currently have asthma, according to the Ohio Department of Health website. Many of the communities most affected by air pollution are our low-income, Black, brown and immigrant communities, according to the American Lung Association website. Passing Issue 1 gives us a chance to take a stand as a city that we reject our history of environmental racism in these communities and are looking forward to a future focused on climate justice and public health based on equity. Clean air should be our right and priority, not a privilege reserved for those who can afford it.
Ohio State, back when it was making better decisions on energy policy in 2012, took a bold move and purchased 50 megawatts of energy from an Ohio-based wind farm. Twenty-five percent of our electricity on the Columbus campus comes from this clean energy purchase. This project saved our university money and made an investment in the Ohio clean energy economy. Right now, Ohio State is entering into a privatized energy deal and moving to build a combined heat and power plant on our campus (ironically adjacent to our university’s environmental research arm) using fracked gas, which damages groundwater supply and air in surrounding Ohio communities and our own air quality in Columbus. This decision runs counter to the city’s move toward a clean energy future. We must show that clean energy is our future, not harmful oil and gas.
The city of Columbus is making a bold move for the future of our city and we should support this initiative by voting yes on Issue 1 this November and support climate and racial justice at home, here in Columbus.
Victoria Abou-Ghalioum
Ph.D. student in Environmental Social Sciences
