PUCO Chair Tied To ALEC

Public Utilities Commission of Ohio chair Todd Snitchler (SNIHCH'-lur) has ties to a group behind model legislation that would repeal states' renewable energy requirements.The Republican Snitchler was a keynote speaker at the American Legislative Exchange Council's April 2011 spring task force meeting. The event was held the month after Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich appointed the former lawmaker to the commssion. An Associated Press review of public documents finds Snitchler attended exchange council meetings regularly from 2009 through 2011, up to nearly a year after leaving the Legislature. A commission spokesperson says Snitchler discussed telecommunications, broadband, energy and environmental issues. Snitchler has been in the headlines for his opposition to a planned southwest Ohio solar farm and for using his Twitter page to question global climate change. The Council is funded by the Koch brothers and other wealthy individuals and corporations in the energy field, as well big tobacco, insurance firms, and companies like Kraft, Coca Cola, AT&T, GlaxoSmithKline, and Johnson & Johnson. The Council was created to lobby lawmakers and in some cases write legislation benefiting its member.