LOGAN — Members of the Sustainable Ohio Public Energy Council (SOPEC) spoke before the city council on Tuesday. They first spoke about the Charging Smart program, which recognizes communities for making improvements in “local zoning, local permitting and local operations to make it easier for folks, whether it be homeowners, renters, businesses, to invest in solar for their own operations or invest in electric vehicle charging for their own operations,” as explained by Special Programs Manager Matt Roberts. Effectively, the program incentivizes and helps communities to change zoning and permitting laws to make it easier for more energy efficient power sources, such as EV changing or solar panels, to be implemented.
Another representative from SOPEC, Regional Director Jessica Armold, also spoke before council. Arnold talked about an EV charging station that is already in progress in Logan. Specifically, she explained that the city was participating in a program to cover the “charging desert” in southern Ohio. The location of the new EV charging station will be in Aqueduct Park, which just passed the environmental site assessment.
However, there has been some debate over whether or n...