Feature
EPA cancels grants
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has terminated grant agreements totaling $20 billion. The grants were issued under the Biden administration to form a Green Bank program, designed to finance clean energy and climate friendly projects.
The idea was to create a nationwide version of government backed and nonprofit green banks that are currently operating in 17 states. The law gave the EPA $27 billion to grant to states, tribes, nonprofit groups and public private consortiums.
Those grantees in turn can lend or grant funds to projects or initiatives across the country while bringing in private sector lenders or financial backers to try and multiply the effects of this money.
In April of 2024, the EPA picked eight coalitions to receive the funds.
The U.S. Energy Administration (EIA) or the EIA recently released electric generation data from 2024.
Solar and wind grew nationwide at the same time that coal continued its long-term decline. Natural gas had small increases and remains the country's top fuel for producing electricity. Natural gas power plants generated 43.3 percent of the country's electricity last year, up from 43.2% in 2023. Utility-scale renewables, wind, solar, and hydropower, were 22.7 percent, up from 21.4% percent. Nuclear was 18.2 percent, down from 18.5 percent. Coal accounted for 15.2 percent of electric generation, down from 16.1 percent.
EIA projects this trend will continue in 2025 as wind and solar dominate new generation sources. EIA also projects that solar plus storage will account for 81 percent of all new electrical generation in 2025. Wind will provide 12 percent of new generation surpassing natural gas accounting for about 7 percent.
Nuclear and Coal Stagnant and Declining
The March 2025 Free Press Salon was held over Zoom on March 8. This is what happened.
Free Press Board member Mark Stansbery started out the March 2025 salon by wishing everyone a happy International Women’s Day and relating a message from our friend Yurii Sheliazhenko in Ukraine, highlighting the day’s Ukrainian roots and connection to anti-war efforts.
Ohio’s cannabis industry has seen rapid expansion since voters approved adult-use legalization in 2023. Licensed dispensaries began serving consumers in 2024, but now lawmakers are moving to tighten regulations, introducing new bills that could reshape how cannabis is grown, sold, and consumed.
Two key pieces of legislation—Senate Bill 56 and Senate Bill 86—are currently under debate in the Ohio Senate. These bills propose new restrictions on home cultivation, public consumption, THC potency, and the sale of hemp-derived intoxicants, signaling a more controlled and regulated market.
Senate Bill 56: Stricter Rules on Cultivation, Consumption, and THC Limits
The Ohio Senate passed Senate Bill 56 on February 26, 2025, introducing significant changes that could impact both consumers and businesses. The bill focuses on tightening personal cultivation rules, enforcing public consumption bans, and capping THC potency in cannabis products.
Residential Installations Decline in 2023
The U.S. residential solar industry struggled last year, seeing declines in installations by about 26 percent in 2023. Much of this decline was due to changes in the net metering policy in California, which reduced compensation for those exporting power to the grid by about 75 percent. As a result, residential installations in California dropped by over 40 percent.
In 2023, California accounted for 25 percent of all residential solar installed nationwide.
Other factors leading to the nationwide decline were higher interest rates as well as increased tariffs which added to the cost of installing a system.
Residential solar only makes up about 22 percent of the overall solar market. Utility scale solar accounts for 72 percent of all solar installations with a dramatic 44 percent growth rate in 2023.
Renewables Continue to Surpass Fossil Fuels as a New Generating Supply
At the start of March, the Ohio Power Siting Board – which is the government body responsible for approving or denying the project – is holding a final hearing in Columbus for Eastern Cottontail Solar.
The Eastern Cottontail Solar Project is a proposed up to 220-megawatt (AC) solar powered electric generating facility on approximately up to 1,550 acres of privately owned land in Fairfield County, Ohio. Located within Walnut Township, the purpose of this Project will be to generate and deliver electricity to the bulk transmission system. The Eastern Cottontail Solar Project would include various equipment, including, without limitation, solar panels, inverters, and a project substation, all of sufficient size and capacity to achieve up to the proposed nameplate capacity set forth above.
It will be extremely important for the room to be filled with solar supporters. Please consider attending. There won’t be testimony from community members, as this is a legal proceeding where the public can observe. As such, all we’re asking for is your presence – and to wear green – to show your support!
Immigrants’ awareness of their civil rights is gaining traction – but if you see ICE, take a picture
Tension is high in Columbus amongst immigrants and activists, yet white America will never know the fear of being an undocumented immigrant of color, especially now.
Making things worse for our local immigrant community was a false Columbus Reddit post of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents stalking international grocery stores on the North Side back in late January. A post with no photo or video yet read by tens-of-thousand.
Whether it was a white advocate who mistook what they saw, or a miserable neo-Nazi out for more spite, is unknown. The Brooklyn-based The Haitian Times reported how the post led to “rumors” which “quickly gained traction, sparking fear in the city’s immigrant communities.”
Next Sunday, February 23, our local Veterans For Peace Chapter 183 will be participating in a Global Day of Action to Close Military Bases. Sponsored by World Beyond War, the event will call attention to "the thousands of military bases, both foreign and domestic, around the world [that] are a critical piece of the war machine that must be dismantled. Closing bases is a necessary step to shift the global security paradigm towards a demilitarized approach that centers common security — no one is safe until all are safe."
The VFP-Central Ohio action will also be protesting Anduril Industries, a defense technology company specializing in artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous systems, and data integration software. A month ago today, the company announced that it would be building a drone warfare complex just outside of Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base in Pickaway County, Ohio. (See article: Anduril announced their Arsenal-1)
The 50501 Movement is a coalition demanding justice, transparency, accountability, and an end to executive overreach. Despite being seen as leaderless, every individual, state, city, grassroots organization, and activist are leaders in this movement. Together, they guide us toward a future based on foundational principles. On February 5th we help mobilize over 20,000 like-minded individuals, activists, and organizations to stand against the harmful impacts of the current administration and Project 2025.
In truth, the 50501 Movement does not refer to an organization—it represents a vision, the American Dream, as we were all once taught to believe it. Each voice of this movement, peacefully united, forms a rallying cry and demand for the "American Dream" that we once all held close to our heart. A dream that we feel has prove
This is not just a movement—it is our modern-day civil rights struggle.