Cincinnati Dumps Duke Energy

Co-Authored by Phil Radford, Greenpeace and Sandy Buchanan, Ohio Citizen Action

Photo Credit: David Sorcher, Greenpeace

The Greenpeace Airship A.E. Bates flies over Cincinnati with a banner reading "Dump Duke" on one side and "Cleaner is Cheaper" on the other.

Today, Duke Energy found out that more than 50,000 commercial and residential electricity users in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio are dumping Duke and shifting to 100 percent clean energy.

Cincinnati is a trendsetter: it is the first city in Ohio, and the first of its size in the nation, to go 100 percent green.

The city is part of a much larger trend in which major electricity buyers like Cincinnati and even the social network Facebook are committing to shift from coal to clean energy, and in so doing putting companies like Duke-Progress, which will be the largest utility in the country, on notice.

This is big news.

The announcement is the culmination of a campaign that started last fall, when Ohio Citizen Action and Greenpeace ran a successful ballot initiative to allow the City to bargain for electricity on behalf of its residents. The voters passed the initiative by a resounding 59-41 percent. In February, the coalition was successful in rallying the citizens of Cincinnati to give the city a clear mandate to supply 100 percent renewable energy and no 'fracked' natural gas. The Council responded with resounding approval of the people's demands, unanimously passing a motion asking bidders to include a 100 percent Renewable Energy Credit option (in addition to a lowest cost electricity option).

Last month seven companies placed bids for the electric aggregation contract. First Energy Solutions won, with a proposal to provide power to Cincinnati using 100 percent renewable energy credits. A portion of this green electricity will come from local sources, including solar credits from the Cincinnati Zoo Solar canopy project. Some of the credits will come from outside the local area. According to the City Manager's office, the average eligible household will save approximately $133 per year on their electricity bills.

We hope the efforts of Cincinnati's leaders will result in a shift from the three dirty Duke coal plants surrounding the city to clean energy that will result in far more jobs and clean air for the children of Ohio. It would be a real shame if these three dirty Duke Energy plants sell electricity to other cities, send the profit back to HQ in Charlotte, NC and leave Cincinnatians with health problems from the pollution. That's not a fair deal for the residents of Cincinnati.

Duke Energy needs to be accountable to the people -- not their bottom line -- and shift their investments from coal to clean energy, phasing out these plants in the near future.

With big buyers like Cincinnati dumping Duke, this may happen sooner rather than later. In fact, this announcement occurred at the same time that Greenpeace ramped up its efforts to persuade some of the biggest electricity consumers -- IT giants and internet behemoths such as Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon -- to dump dirty coal companies like Duke and join Cincinnati in moving to clean energy. After all, we all deserve to be able to click, like, and share knowing the football field sized buildings that store servers aren't powered by the coal that is causing lung problems in our kids.

So far, nearly 65,000 people have viewed the video introducing iCoal, and 154,000 people have taken action, telling Apple to clean their cloud. Companies like Apple are at the forefront of innovation, and shouldn't be powering the future with dirty coal. If Apple listens to the people, Duke Energy will find its big corporate customers dropping it just like Cincinnati did today.

A renewable energy future for the city of Cincinnati is great news; it is a great first step in the direction we need to go as a nation. It is time to see real, deployed, and distributed renewable energy solutions across America.

 

Follow Philip Radford on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Phil_Radford

Comments

[Nathan Lane]

03:21 PM on 04/30/2012

Yes..... I'm so happy to have played a part in making this come about. To all the naysayers.... this is the future...... we don't need to burn our planets fossil fuels to produce power. We don't. Period.

[markkocaldo]

02:46 PM on 04/30/2012

How do they get 100% distributable renewable energy at night, on cloudy days and when the wind ain't blowing?

[murph0613]

12:14 PM on 04/30/2012

If the cost savings is accurate, and the residents have no want for power, then this is a good thing. Duke has been raising rates and fleecing the people of this area for far too long.

I would like to see this push to the Cincy suburbs, but ONLY if there is no restriction or upcharge for those of us who consume lots of electricity. I'm not willing to pay more for the privilege of 'being green.'

[retromega]

08:34 PM on 04/30/2012

You'd rather your world was covered in soot if it saved you a few bucks? Back when every man shoveled coal he'd make sure he had either a maid or a wife to do his laundry since his shirts were always black. I'll let you figure out where the costs that worry you so much are but I'll hazard a guess that you don't pay your health care costs out of pocket.

[dangerousdaneerfan]

08:51 PM on 04/29/2012

I am sure the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio will have the final say about whether a large city like Cincinnati can just dump Duke Energy. And, if they have already dumped Duke Energy, then who do electric customers pay their electric bills to???? A Co-Op, the City of Cincinnati, who????

[Fabien Tepper]

03:55 PM on 04/30/2012

Hi dangerousdaneerfan, I'm a Cincinnati journalist and I wrote about this process last year. To answer your question: The city has chosen First Energy Solutions to be its new electricity provider. Last fall voters chose to pool their gas and electricity consumption, by allowing the City to solicit bids from private energy companies. The idea was to find out who could offer the best deal to the city as a whole, and Duke was not eligible to bid, as they are not entirely private. (Duke has also charged 30% higher rates than their private competitors, in recent years.) But since Duke owns all the infrastructure for energy *delivery* in Cincinnati--power lines, gas lines, meters--consumers will continue to pay Duke to deliver their energy.

[Fabien Tepper]

04:02 PM on 04/30/2012

Hi there, I'm a Cincinnati journalist who's written about this process. To answer your question, Cincinnati has chosen First Energy Solutions to be its electricity provider. Last year voters chose to pool their gas and electricity consumption, by allowing the city to solicit bids from private energy companies. Duke was not eligible to bid, as it is not an entirely private company. But because it owns all local energy delivery infrastructure--power lines, gas lines, meters--households will continue to pay Duke to deliver the energy they are buying form First Energy (and a yet-to-be-announced natural gas provider).

[PRONESE]

06:43 PM on 04/28/2012

So, How does one ensure that the "Green Energy" purchased is truly green and not created by the ugly coal and fracking gas powered generation plants? A separate power grid? No. Solar Cells on Battery banks and inverters your premises? No.
A shell game of "Renewable Energy Credits" are used. Trust us, It's Clean.
Of course it is.
R/ PRONESE

[KeysE2S]

11:37 PM on 04/29/2012

I like how you sign your posts even though your name appears a the top.

[PRONESE]

05:20 AM on 04/30/2012

A habit that I picked up from USENET.
Department of redundancy Department
More Coffee...
R/ PRONESE

[damiancincy]

01:35 PM on 04/30/2012

You are absolutely right. The electricity WILL come from local coal plants. It will, however, be accounted for by credit exchanges with "green" energy providers which range from residential solar panel owners that seel there excess generation back onto the grid to wind farms in Chicago.

50,000 is a very small number (and fairly optimistic). But it is a foothold. Furthermore, this green alternative is NOT a cheaper option in total. This option is subsidized via government grants - then the generation rate is set such that it is slightly less per KWH for the consumer.

It's feel good message but the article reeks of propaganda.

[Longtimeliberal]

06:35 PM on 04/28/2012

GREAT NEWS!