For Immediate Release:
April 14, 2016

Contact:
Craig Richardson
[email protected]
703-981-5553

Kevon Martis, Founder of Interstate Informed Citizen’s Coalition,
Joins E&E Legal as Senior Policy Fellow

Washington, D.C. – David W. Schnare, Chair and General Counsel of the Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal), announced today that Kevon Martis, Founder and Executive Director of the Interstate Informed Citizen Coalition (ICC) has joined E&E Legal as a Senior Policy Fellow. IICC is a non-profit corporation dedicated to raising public awareness of the potential impacts from the construction of industrial wind turbines in Ohio and Michigan.

“We’re delighted to have Kevon Martis join the team,” said Schnare  “Kevon and his group have been fighting at the local level against one of the biggest taxpayer-funded boondoggles of all time, and that’s wind power, an industry that wouldn’t survive without mandates and the massive subsidies and tax credits lavished on it each year.”

Schnare noted that E&E Legal studied the shortcomings of wind in a December 2012, report, “The Hidden Costs of Wind Electricity: Why the full cost of wind generation is unlikely to match the cost of natural gas, coal or nuclear generation.”  According to the study, authored by Tom Tanton, E&E Legal’s Director of Science and Technology Assessment, “in the absence of subsidies, adding just the four largest hidden costs would reveal that wind’s full cost is about twice what the Energy Information Administration reported in its most recent ‘levelized cost of electricity’ comparison, three times the current cost of gas-fired electricity, and 40-50% more than EIA’s estimates for the cost of new nuclear or coal generation.”

As director of the IICC, an independent public policy resource to township, county and state officials wrestling with wind energy subsidies, mandates and controversial land use policies associated with wind development, Martis has developed model land use regulations for utility scale wind generation that protect individual land owners from predatory zoning practices employed by the wind industry. These regulations use current zoning law to restore the free market principles of consent and compensation to land use policy in the renewable energy space. He has presented these concepts to regulators and legislators across the Midwest.

In 2014 Martis provided critical testimony to the Ohio legislature leading to enactment of the nation’s first freeze of a Renewable Portfolio Standard.  He also played a key role in educating Michigan voters as they rejected a ballot initiative that would have constitutionally mandated Michigan utilities generate 25% of their energy from renewable sources by the year 2025.

Martis also regularly testifies before both the Ohio and Michigan legislatures on energy policy matters. His testimonies on renewable energy mandates and subsidies are valued for their independence, clarity and ability to cut through the fog of lobbyist misinformation.

“I have first hand experience of the amount of lobbying and campaign funding that the wind industry is spreading around to get their products sited across Ohio and Michigan, which is not good for the citizens of these states nor the nation” said Martis. “I look forward to bringing this local knowledge to E&E Legal to help bolster their free market approach to energy policy.”

The Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal) is a 501(c)(3) organization engaged in strategic litigation, policy research, and public education on important energy and environmental issues. Primarily through its petition litigation and transparency practice areas, E&E Legal seeks to correct onerous federal and state policies that hinder the economy, increase the cost of energy, eliminate jobs, and do little or nothing to improve the environment.

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