Cleveland Public Power (CPP) is proposing to make a 50-year commitment to buy power from a new 1,000-megawatt, coal-fired power plant to be built in southern Ohio by the state consortium of municipal utilities. CPP officials favor the deal as a way to assure long-term, baseload power at a predictable price — stability that will allow CPP to develop other programs for energy conservation and clean, renewable power. And they point out that the new plant would allow dirtier, less efficient coal plants to be retired.

But green energy advocates have argued in recent City Council hearings that, in an age of climate change, it would be a tragedy and financially risky to support a new coal plant in Ohio. Ohio Citizen Action, for instance, recently posted an economic analysis that asserts the plant could cost 50% more than projected. Other environmental groups and business analysts have pointed out that the energy industry is moving away from coal because of financial and regulatory uncertainties.

Other municipal utilities in the AMP-Ohio consortium are also struggling to make a decision on whether to participate in the coal plant deal. Oberlin City Council has been having hot debates. And Yellow Springs just rejected the deal.

Meanwhile, Cleveland City Council has hired an independent consultant to review the financial, technical, and regulatory assumptions of the deal. The results are scheduled to be released at a Feb. 22 hearing of Council's Public Utilities Committee. All this activity is rushing toward a contractual deadline of March 1, the last day that cities can join or pull out of the deal.

The situation is a dramatic example of how hard it is for policy makers to make transitions to a better future — moving from systems that we have relied upon in the past  to provide essential services (like the electricity from baseload coal-burning power plants) to new systems still being developed (like decentralized power production from renewable sources). It's hard to change until the new world exists, but the new world won't exist until people decide to change.