“Planet over profit,” rang out as about 40 people, mostly Ohio State students, gathered outside to protest the continued construction of Ohio State’s combined heat and power plant on West campus Friday.
Protesters said they feel the university has ignored demands they’ve reiterated for almost a year. They’ve asked Ohio State verbally to halt the construction of the plant, speak with students and community activists on sustainable resources, transition its thermal energy production from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, democratize future decisions and apologize to students for “ignoring their voices for so long,” Chandler Rupert, president of the Students for a Democratic Society at Ohio State, said.
“We are here today to let OSU know that no matter what they say, we will not give up, and we will not stop our demands for environmental justice,” Rupert, a fourth-year in political ecology, said.
The university has 72 hours to respond to the demands before the protester’s actions will escalate, Rupert said. He did not specify what those actions will entail.
Students have been protesting the plant since October 2020. The power plant’s construction was approved Sept. 17, 2020, as a $278 million project to use natural gas through fracking, a process of drilling into the earth to extract natural gas, to provide energy-efficient electricity.
Anagha Velamakanni, co-chair of the Young Democratic Socialists at Ohio State, said the university, in an effort to “reduce organizing and actions related to the plant,” hired students at the Ohio State Sustainability Institute.
“Instead of investing in our future and investing in our health, OSU would rather pay us money to keep quiet while they deteriorate our environment,” Velamakanni, a fourth-year in economics, said. “I’m not sorry to say this, but we’re not going to keep quiet. We will make as much noise and as much ruckus as possible to bring light to this.”
University spokesperson Ben Johnson said in a statement the plant is expected to cut the university’s carbon emissions by more than 30 percent in its first full year of operations. The factors that drove the plant’s construction include its costs, reliability and emissions reduction.
“The CHP facility is the best way that Ohio State can achieve the most amount of emission reductions in the shortest amount of time at a cost that is affordable,” Johnson said.
Ohio State announced its goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 in 2008, releasing its Climate Action Plan in 2011, according to Ohio State’s Sustainability Institute website. The 2011 plan outlined actions the university could take to reach its neutrality goal— including the installation of heat recovery chillers, geothermal heating and cooling and regional chiller plants.
Velamakanni said the university ignoring its students only fuels the fire and passion she has to fight for environmental justice. She said she believes the university would rather fund the athletic program than academics and resources to protect the environment.
“It’s frustrating. That’s not the kind of institution that I want to be a part of,” Velamakanni said.
The protest was followed by a march to Bricker Hall where protesters chanted for University President Kristina M. Johnson to comply with their demands or have a conversation with them about sustainability.
“There’s so much to be done, so let’s get to work,” Velamakanni said. “OSU will ignore us no longer because it’s nothing without its students — we deserve to be heard.”
The story was updated at 11:50 a.m. to include a statement from the university.
