Students Meet New Leadership to Advocate for Renewables Energy and Energy Efficiency

​Press Release

FRANKFORT--- Members of the Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition met with some of the state’s legislators on Friday afternoon. Students attended the lobby day in the hopes of discussing the placement of the Energy Opportunity Act, a bill KSEC worked to get introduced in the Senate. The students strategized for the upcoming session, discussing key legislators to meet with in order to get the bill passed.

In passing the Energy Opportunity Act, Kentucky would adopt a renewable and energy efficiency portfolio standard that would increase utility companies’ renewable energy production by 12.5 percent and increase energy efficiency by 10.25 percent over the next 10 years. The legislation also introduces of feed-in tariffs to Kentucky utilities, which would give Kentuckians the opportunity to become energy entrepreneurs.

“This bill would bolster the state’s economy and citizens’ pocketbooks. A study from Synapse Energy Economics found that this bill would create upwards of 28,000 jobs and save consumers 8 to 10 percent on their energy bills,” high school student and KSEC member Grace Engelman said. “It makes a lot of sense to pass this bill, so I am hopeful that our legislators reach across party lines to get it through to the governor.”
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Representative Mary Lou Marzian and Senator Reginald Thomas were among the legislators KSEC met with on Friday. Rep. Marzian sponsors the Energy Opportunity Act in the House and Sen. Thomas sponsors the bill in the Senate.