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House Energy Committee hears HB303 to pilot community energy projects; sponsors emphasize local control, private capital and economic benefits
Summary
Representatives Hoopes and Ray introduced House Bill 303 to create a phased community energy pilot that would allow third-party developers to build small-scale distributed generation (solar, wind, biomass, landfill gas, hydroelectric, natural-gas-fired generators, fuel cells, and storage) using private capital, with local permitting and decommis
Representatives Hoopes and Ray presented House Bill 303 to the House Energy Committee as a pilot to expand community energy and distributed generation in Ohio, emphasizing local permitting authority, private capital, consumer protections and phased implementation.
Representative Hoopes described HB303 as a "holistic approach to addressing distributive energy connectivity" and said it broadens community energy implementation, defining community energy to include solar photovoltaic facilities, wind, biomass, landfill gas, hydro, natural-gas-fired generators, fuel cells and energy storage.
Representative Ray said the program is phased in over four years and limited in project size. He said third-party developers would use private capital only and would not be permitted to seek rate recovery through PUCO. Ray highlighted consumer protections and local permitting: projects must be permitted through the local permitting authority and township trustees would retain the ability to deny projects they judge not beneficial to their township. Ray also cited projected local economic impacts: "The economic impact of community energy access not only creates $490,000,000 in local tax revenue, but also $5,600,000,000 in local economic investment," he said.
Committee members asked whether other fuel types would be precluded (sponsors said the list is not intended to be exhaustive and the program's smaller project size naturally limits fit), whether brownfields and rooftops would be prioritized to avoid farmland use (sponsors said yes and noted decommissioning plans and a requirement to update them every five years), and whether the pilot could speed deployment compared with larger projects (sponsors said community projects could reach the grid in roughly 18 months and help meet nearer-term needs while larger projects proceed).
Representative Humphrey raised environmental-risk questions for projects sited on brownfields; sponsors replied that environmental studies and decommissioning requirements were part of the program design and that decommissioning plans, including funding, would be required and updated periodically.
The committee heard that the program's proponents view community energy as complementary to the larger generation and transmission changes in House Bill 15; the sponsors said HB303 was pulled out of HB15 for separate vetting so the pilot could be publicly discussed and refined.
No committee vote was recorded; the first hearing concluded and the bill remains in committee for further work and stakeholder engagement.
