Ohio Energy Matters: Welcome to a new blog

Ohio 

A New Local Blog, and Why Local Blogs Matter

This post welcomes a new local blog, started by Will Davis.

Ohio Energy Matters
This blog's motto is:
Reporting on Ohio energy matters because Ohio's energy MATTERS

This blog is in the grand tradition of local nuclear blogs...well, I think that there are only five local nuclear blogs in North America.  Still, five can be a grand tradition, right?

The five local blogs that I know about are:
Ohio Energy Matters
Canadian Energy Issues
Atoms For California
Northwest Clean Energy
Yes Vermont Yankee

All politics is local. 

Local blogs can influence local actions by providing local information and linking to ways to use that

information (hearings to attend, newspaper articles that may have comment sections on-line, etc.)  The local blogs are adapted to their areas, and feature different types of information.

• Steve Aplin of Canadian Energy Issues has a running sidebar on his blog of how much clean energy is being produced in Ontario, that hour, by nuclear, gas, wind and other energy sources. 
• Andrew Benson of Atoms for California analyzes the California Energy Commission response to nuclear, among other things, including renewable sprawl.
• Northwest Clean Energy writes about new records set by Columbia Generating Station, challenges nuclear opponents inaccurate scare stories, and describes a utility demand response initiative. (This blog has several bloggers: I am one of them.) 
• Will Davis at Ohio Energy Matters describes local hearings and local news reports.  He also has local news sources in his blog rolls.
• At Yes Vermont Yankee, I have quoted from testimony and court cases concerning the plant. I also have local news on my blog rolls.

The blog posts at these blogs are  not always of national interest.  Yet they are tremendously important.  Local people want to link to legislative reports, hearing records and so forth. They want to refer back to something that happened six months ago, without trying to comb through the archives of a newspaper.  As a matter of fact, newspaper and radio reporters often (not always) read the local blogs when they want "the other side" of the nuclear story, and are pressed for time to find it.

All politics is local.

The Opponents Go National and We Must Go Local

Many nuclear opponents have nationwide reach.  For example, one of the men who was most active in closing Vermont Yankee is now "crisscrossing  (Ohio) labeling the power purchase agreement a “bailout” for the utility and specifically for Davis-Besse." From a   Dan Yurman blog post on activism against nuclear plants.  This man is determined to close down Davis-Besse next.

To defend the nuclear option, I believe we need both national and local blogs. A recent post at Ohio Energy Matters shows exactly the type of impact that a local blogs can have.

Nuclear Energy Institute did a report on the financial contributions of Davis Besse to the Ohio economy.  In his blog post,  Economic Impacts of Davis-Besse, Will Davis summarized the report and linked to the report.  But he went farther.  He compared this report to the report of economic devastation that is happening in Vermont due to shutting down Vermont Yankee.  In other words, he put the Davis-Besse report in context.

In the comment section, someone asked how to comment to agencies in favor of Davis Besse.  By having a local blog, Davis was able to both receive this comment (who you gonna ask?) and to answer it.  

Welcome the new local blog: Ohio Energy Matters!

Will Davis, Blog Author

Will Davis has an outstanding track record as a pro-nuclear energy communicator.  Davis has his own blog, Atomic Power Review, with over 800,000 page views. He writes for the industry newsletter, Fuel Cycle Week. He is one of the organizers and editors of the American Nuclear Society blog ANS Nuclear Café. Davis is also Communications Director for the Nuclear Ship Savannah Association.

So Davis is not just a nuclear communicator, he is a very busy and very sought-after nuclear communicator.  And yet, Davis has started this new, local blog.  Because local blogs are important.