Gov. John Kasich got a guided tour Monday of Amazon’s huge new fulfillment center in Etna, near Reynoldsburg. And he used the opportunity to blast a bill to change the state’s green energy requirements on electric utilities into voluntary goals.
Before the tour, Amazon’s Paul Misener talked about the company’s goal of getting 100 percent of its energy for its Ohio cloud computing operation from renewable sources.
As he addressed a crowd, Kasich had a message for Sen. Jay Hottinger (R-Newark), who was in the audience and supported previous efforts to delay implementation of the renewable energy mandates.
“Now it doesn’t make a lot of sense for the legislature to take us back, Senator, on the issue of renewables,” Kasich said.
Kasich vetoed a bill similar to the green energy goals measure in December, although the new bill passed the House by a veto-proof supermajority. The Senate would need 20 votes to override, and last year's similar bill got 18.
