DEAR EDITOR:

Ohio is strengthening its industrial leadership with the good news that Intel, Ford, Honda, GM and others are willing to spend millions or billions to locate or grow in Ohio. Site Selection magazine ranked Ohio No. 1 for the past two years in the Groundwork Index thanks to record success in economic development.

Manufacturing, long the backbone of Youngstown, is also evolving and embracing the latest technological innovations. AI, advanced manufacturing, and 3D printing have found a home in Youngstown, driven in part by resources like America Makes. All of this good news is necessarily accompanied by the need to have the electricity and grid infrastructure to power it all.

We depend on First Energy and AEP to keep the lights on at fair prices. Unfortunately, AEP has proposed a new industrial tariff that could push data center projects away from Ohio, taking valuable jobs with them. While we understand utilities have to recover their costs, there are ways to accomplish this without threatening economic growth — just look to recent deals secured by AEP utilities in Indiana and West Virginia as examples.

These issues are best resolved when all sides work together to find a way forward. The Public Utilities Commission should carefully consider the issues to make sure Ohio citizens are best served and we don’t push away a brighter future for us all.

MARK MUNROE

Boardman