Monthly Archives: April 2018

Ways to Be More Productive at Work

It can be hard to produce in a work environment, since it’s usually filled with noises that can distract you from doing your job. Regardless of where you work, you’ll surely be faced with some distractions that will prevent you from focusing on getting tasks done. Although it may seem impossible to increase your productivity at work, there are some strategies that may help you.

Avoid Multitasking

Even though most people believe that they’ll be able to get more work done if they multitask, this isn’t the case. A study conducted by Stanford University showed that multitaskers will actually make you less productive. By doing more than one tasks at a time, you will increase the chance of making a mistake. Additionally, you won’t be able to remember important details properly. If you want to be more productive, you will need to focus only on one task at a time and block all distractions.

Take Breaks

In some cases, you may feel like you’re so swamped that you don’t even have the time to take breaks. However, keep in mind that taking a few minutes to cool off is important no matter how much work you need to do. The reason why breaks are so important is because they will help improve your focus, which will have a huge effect on your overall productivity. If you don’t take breaks, you’ll most likely see a decline in performance.

Get a Good Night’s Sleep

In order to be more productive at work, you will need to make sure that you always get a good night’s sleep. Ideally, you should sleep at least seven hours each night if you want to improve your productivity. If you don’t have a good sleeping schedule and usually go to bed late, then you should work on fixing it right away. Keep in mind that you may find it hard to go to sleep earlier in the beginning, but you will see a lot of benefits as soon as you start doing it regularly. After all, that’s the only way you’ll feel refreshed and ready for work in the morning.

One of the easiest ways to improve your sleeping habits is to choose a more comfortable mattress. There are many good options available on the market today. One of the best mattress types you can go for is a memory foam mattress. However, you should always make sure that the mattress you want to buy is made by a reputable manufacturer.

Clean Your Desk

Cleaning your desk is without a doubt one of the easiest ways to increase your productivity at work. Remember that your workspace greatly influences your performance. If your desk is filled with random unorganized papers and boxes, then you will face some problems focusing. As soon as you start organizing your workspace, you will see how great it is to work in a pleasant environment.

Turn Off Notifications

It’s no secret that it can be extremely hard to resist the allure of text or email notifications. Nevertheless, if you want to be more productive at work, then you will need to turn off your notifications. It’s perfectly fine to check your texts and emails during breaks, but if you do this while working, it will significantly reduce your performance.

Follow the Two-Minute Rule

The two-minute rule is quite simple – if you have a task that would take you up to two minutes to complete, then you should do it instantly. You should always make sure to finish these small tasks right away, since they won’t take up a lot of your time. Nevertheless, if you ignore them and let them build up, then you will increase your stress levels, thus making it harder for you to focus on more important tasks.

Eat Healthier

You may be surprised to find out just how much of an impact food has on your productivity. Although you may be tempted to get something sweet from that donut shop that’s close by, you should know that it will probably slow you down. By eating healthier, you will feel energized and focused throughout the whole day.

How to Fight Back Against Insurance Companies

In most cases, you will file an insurance claim after a traumatic event. Unfortunately, you may your insurance company refusing to pay after an event like this. This can be an extremely frustrating experience, so it’s important that you fight back. Many people choose not to argue with their insurance company because they assume that the company is right. However, in most cases, the insurance company is simply looking for a way to pay you less money or not to pay you at all. This is why you should know what to do when your claim gets denied. After all, you should do everything that is in your power in order to get the money that you’re entitled to.

The first thing that you’ll need to do is insist on a written explanation. Keep in mind that insurance companies are required to provide you with a written explanation of why your claim has been denied. If they don’t comply, then it’s safe to assume that they’re hiding something. If you need assistance with fighting back your insurance company, then you should visit your insurance agent at work, since they will be able to assist you.

It’s worth mentioning that insurance companies often get out of paying due to innocent mistakes or omissions. This is why you’ll need to be extremely cautious when you’re filing your insurance forms. Otherwise, companies may use rescission to deny a life or health insurance claim. In order to avoid these problems, you will need to be totally honest when you’re answering the questions on the forms.

Keep in mind never to omit information or lie in order to get a lower premium. Of course, it’s a must that you read everything before you sign the application. If you’ve found out that your insurance company acted in bad faith and wrongfully denied your claims, then you should seek legal help.

It’s worth noting that insurance companies will always check into the history and health of the policyholder in case the life insurance claim is made just a few years after the policy was taken out. In the event that they find some serious health issues that weren’t mentioned in the application, you can be sure that they will deny the claim. Nevertheless, if the inaccuracies weren’t intentional, you can always try proving that in court.

Insurance companies often use errors made by an employer to deny a life insurance claim. In most cases, people will seek life insurance through their employer, since it provides them with an affordable and easy way to get it. Apart from being responsible to explain the benefits to their employees, your employer is also tasked with filing everything properly with the insurance companies. If any errors get made, these companies can try and deny the claim. However, it’s important to remember that you can and should fight back and demand your claim be honored.

Life insurance claims sometimes get denied if a person is no longer listed as the beneficiaryThis can happen after a divorce or other similar event. If you’re filing a claim for your spouse with whom you previously got separated, then you may not be the legal beneficiary anymore. Nevertheless, if your divorce wasn’t finalized or if you’re spouse had an obligation to maintain life insurance in order to cover child support, then you’d probably be able to fight back against your insurance company and win.

The most important thing that you’ll need to remember is that just because your insurance company denied your claim doesn’t mean that they win. There’s always a way to fight back and there are numerous options available even after your claim gets denied. Of course, it’s a must to seek legal help before going forward.

How to Keep Your Retirement Savings on Track

The United States is, apparently, on the road to a retirement crisis. Issues like retirement income inadequacy, poor access to retirement savings, and risk and complexity of retirements plans are some of the culprits. The crisis is about to happen at a time when the largest generation of people living in the United States, the Baby Boomers, are retiring at a rate of around 10,000 per day.

What does this mean for you and your retirement plan? It might not mean anything. You could be on your way to a comfortable old age with a solid retirement plan. Or you can be like a third of your fellow Americans and have absolutely nothing saved for your retirement. Most likely you are somewhere in between, which means that you should put in some extra effort to ensure your retirement savings are on track.

Understand How Much Money You’ll Need

Whether you are aware of it or not, you can easily become a victim of a certain kind of bubble that will have adverse effects on your retirement funds. This type of bubble has nothing to do with any financial tools. It will simply make you believe, based on what you hear or read, that a certain amount of money will be enough for your retirement.

The major task you must do when putting your savings back on track is to figure out how much money you will really need. That’s not the same as reading what this pundit said or looking at what that colleague is doing. You need to consider your own circumstances and plan for some of the worst things that can happen in the future. Then, based on the number you get, you can calculate how much money you need to set aside every year to reach your goal. Retirement savings are a plan. You can’t have a plan without planning, and you can’t do any planning without an analysis.

Getting to the Place Where You Can Contribute

If you want to save money for your retirement, you need to have several parallel savings plans. At the very least, you need to have two: an IRA or 401(k), and an emergency fund. That’s on top of your social security taxes.

The reason why you need to have both types of savings is simple. If you have a financial emergency and you can’t find the money to cover it, you will be tempted to take a loan on your 401(k) or borrow from your IRA. Borrowing from those funds isn’t the same as opening a line of credit. You will probably be barred from contributing to your 401(k) until you pay off the loan. If you fail to replenish your IRA within 60 days, you will have to pay taxes on the money you took, and you will not be able to put it back. So, keep an emergency fund you can dip in when it’s absolutely needed. If you already borrowed from your retirement savings, repay the money as soon as possible.

Rein in Your Spending

Many retirement savings accounts work best when you max out your contributions. For many people, putting extra money aside for retirement doesn’t come lightly. Generally, you can achieve it by either making more money or spending less of the money you already earn.

It’s never fun to cut expenses, but most of us have things we can stop paying for without losing any comfort. Maybe dine out less, buy fewer clothing items, save some money on your car insurance and maintenance. You should understand what your top-priority expenditures are, and then choose where you can remove some expenses from the rest.

Finally, you should remember that your retirement savings plan can and should be adjusted over time. As your circumstances change, you might find that you need more money or less than you planned in the first place. Until that happens, however, you can automate your retirement savings to make sure you contribute the right amount of money every month.

7 Realistic Ways to Make Money Online

Having ways to earn some extra cash on the side never hurts. In the United States, more than 44 million of people have a side-gig. Younger people, the Millennials, are at the forefront of the side-hustle epidemic in the US, although the older generations are able to earn more from their side-jobs. Either way, both can count on the Internet to help them easily find another source of income. There is no lack of ways to earn money online, although there are some ways that are better than others. Here is a list of seven tried and tested ways you could try.

  1. Earn Money by Doing Random Tasks

If you don’t want to tie yourself down with a lengthy money-making scheme, your best bet would be to do some micro-jobs. Websites like Fiverr and Mechanical Turk will offer you plenty of opportunities to earn some money doing no- to low-skill tasks. You will not get rich by doing these tasks. On the other hand, you will not have to put in too much time and effort into doing them.

  1. Sell Your Services

Becoming a part of the gig economy sounds appealing to many Americans. Some estimates put the number of people who are a part of the gig economy in the United States at 34% of total workforce. Gigs are more stable than tasks, and they require a higher level of skill, but they also get you more money. Through websites like Upwork, you can find people who would pay you to perform various services, from computer programming to writing articles and web design.

  1. Dropshipping

What is the biggest drawback of having an online store? It’s the inventory. You need a place where you will store products. You also need to send those products to the buyers. Luckily, there is a way to get rid of all of the logistics and focus on developing your store and reaching customers. Dropshipping is a popular retail fulfillment method that allows your store to sell products without ever having to handle them. Your job is to create a store and market it.

  1. Start a Blog

Starting a blog is still one of the most profitable ways to make money online. If you do it right, that is, because blogging has not become easier with years. The competition is as tough as it ever was. There are still plenty of ways to monetize blogs, and finding a good niche is still the best strategy for creating a successful blog. But you will have to put in a lot of time and energy into developing your blog before it starts earning you money.

  1. Write an eBook

There are close to 3.4 million Kindle eBooks on Amazon. Adding to the pile might not seem like the best business idea, but that is not the only way you can make money writing eBooks. If you are a clever marketer, you can do better by selling eBooks directly from your website. You can also try your hand at selling public domain books.

  1. Work Remotely

Making money online doesn’t have to be a side-gig for you. You can find a real job, benefits and all, you can do online, from your home. Remote working is appealing to many companies that want to reduce their overhead. If you look at online job ads, you are bound to find at least a couple that will offer remote working positions.

  1. Become an Email Marketer

An email marketer is only as good as his or her email list is. With a good list, email marketing is a way you can sell your own products, sell other people’s products, promote their business, or do many more things you can monetize. With email marketing, you are capitalizing on the access you have to people’s email addresses, which can be much more valuable than access to their social media presence, for example. If you can build a good list, you can secure decent earnings through email marketing.

 

6 Steps to Increase Productivity and Get More Done in Less Time

People are constantly searching for new ways to increase their productivity. This is because most people don’t get a sense of accomplishment at the end of each day. By increasing your productivity, you will also boost your happiness. This is exactly why you should start working on being more productive today.

Delegate Tasks / Seek Help

If you’re running a business, then you shouldn’t do all of the important tasks yourself. If you want to increase your productivity, then you’ll need to start delegating tasks. This will not only help you focus on more important things, but will reduce your stress levels and keep you healthy as well.

If you’re an employee, then you should seek help from your colleagues whenever you can’t seem to finish a certain task. To do this, you will need to trust them enough to know that they’ll do it properly. Ask for help only from colleagues who will meet your deadlines for the project. In order to ensure that they do a good job, you should provide them with all of the necessary resources including relevant spreadsheets and documents.

Get a Good Night’s Sleep

Getting a good night’s sleep is one of the easiest ways to increase your productivity. In most cases, people spend too much time lying in bed at night without actually sleeping. Usually, they stay up watching TV shows or keep checking what’s new on different social media platforms. If you want to increase your productivity, then you’ll need to stay away from electronic devices when you go to bed. Keep in mind that getting at least 7 hours of sleep each night is a must if you want to stay awake and productive throughout the whole day.

Cut Back on Caffeine

Many people try to increase their productivity at work by drinking a lot of caffeine. However, keep in mind that this is only a temporary solution. If you drink too much coffee, then you will experience a caffeine crash sooner or later. In order to use caffeine to increase your productivity, you will need to consume it in moderation.

Avoid Distractions

It can be easy to let distractions get the best of you while you’re working. Many people spend too much time on social media or watching random YouTube videos. To become more productive, you will first need to figure out what usually distracts you.

If you can’t seem to avoid distractions, consider using time trackers like Qbserve. These are essentially tools that keep track of what you do on your computer and provide feedback on your productivity. By using time trackers, you can improve your focus and develop better work habits. It’s best that you get an automatic time tracker, so that you won’t have to think about starting and stopping tracking.

Stop Multitasking

Although you may think that you will be able to get more work done if you multitask, you will actually just experience a steady decline in focus and productivity. By doing more than one task at the same time, you won’t be able to fully concentrate on any of these tasks.

Take Breaks

Many people think that they’ll be able to get more work done if they don’t take breaks, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. If you don’t set aside any time for relaxation, then you will encounter problems with your focus and productivity sooner or later. However, when you do take breaks, it’s essential that you stay away from any electronic devices. By texting with someone or going on Facebook, you won’t be able to take a proper break and relax.

Instead, you should go somewhere quiet and focus only on your breathing. This will allow you to truly relax and prepare for your next tasks.

8 Steps from Idea to Business

If you’re an innovative person who knows at least a thing or two about the business world, then you may have already come up with a few ideas that could be turned into great companies. If you’ve ever come across a hole in a market and figured out a way to fill it, then you must have at least thought about starting your own business.

However, most people feel like simply don’t have the resources, energy, and time to focus on setting up their very own company. But if you simply act on your idea, you will see that starting a business is actually not that hard. Here are some of the essential steps that you’ll need to take in order to transform your idea into a business.

Make Sure You Have a Good Idea

Sometimes, you may think like you have the perfect business idea, but there may not even be a market for your envisioned product or service. So, before you start taking out loans, it’s crucial that you research whether your idea could be a success. It’s also a must that you check to see if what you’ve thought of already exists, because in a lot of cases, it does.

Have the Right Reasons to Start a Business

If you want to start a business, then you should have a good reason. Although this seems like common sense, many take on the challenge of setting up their own company just because they have problems with authority or would like to have an excuse to take naps throughout the day. However, keep in mind that running a business will require a lot of work and dedication, and you’ll only be able to succeed if you have a real passion for what you do.

Talk it Out with the People You Trust

Just because you’ve come up with a great business idea doesn’t mean that you should keep it to yourself. Keep in mind that you will need help from other people to perfect your vision. Ask the people you trust whether they think your business idea really has potential.

Call in Some Favors

Of course, simply talking about your idea with the people you trust won’t be enough. In most cases, you will need to call in some favors in order to set up your own company. This is where family members and close friends come in. If you don’t have all of the necessary resources to turn your idea into a business, then you should ask for favors from people close to you.

Make a Solid Plan

You can’t really start your own business if you don’t have a solid plan first. A good business plan should have many different strategies that will help you determine how to deal with any obstacle you may encounter on the road to success. Of course, it should also include information regarding what manpower of staff is required for you business, as well as how you plan on paying them.

Hire Professionals for Help

Sometimes, even if you have a good idea, you may not have the knowledge to create your own business plan. However, you shouldn’t worry, since there are actually professional business plan writers that could help you. Similarly, you can hire business plan consultants if you’re unsure what you have planned is any good.

Build a Prototype

If you have a great idea for a product or service, then you should make a prototype to see whether real consumers would like it. Keep in mind that developing a prototype will allow you to get some quality feedback. If you get good feedback, you’ll find it easier to develop a proper final version of the product or service.

Build a Good Team

Even though you may have come up with the idea for your business all by yourself, you will need to have a good team if you want to be successful.

What To Do If You Are Injured On The Job

It doesn’t matter what you do for a living, you could end up injured on the job. Perhaps you expect something like that might happen if you work with heavy equipment or machinery or you play professional sports, but you might not expect on the job injuries if you’re a school teacher or you work in an office where the most exciting thing that happens all day is lunch. On the job injuries can happen anywhere and anytime. If you are hurt at work, you should know how to handle the situation appropriately from the start.

See Your Doctor Immediately

“Whether you’re injured seriously or not, seeing a medical professional immediately following a workplace accident can not only save your life but also help your workman’s comp or personal injury claim,” according to personal injury attorney Stephen Babcock. If your injuries are serious, you want to seek medical attention right away to help you recover faster. If your injuries aren’t severe or even apparent, you might assume you don’t need to see the doctor.

Always see a doctor. Some injuries are internal and only grow worse as they become more apparent. Furthermore, if your accident was due to the negligence of your company or manufacturer error, your injuries should be documented right away to make for a strong personal injury case. Lack of immediate medical care can hinder a personal injury case.

Notify Work

Now that you’ve obtained medical care or called for it, let your boss know what happened at work. Most people are going to find this occurs immediately after the accident, but it’s not always the case. If your immediate boss or the owner of the company isn’t there when you’re injured to help you obtain medical care or witness the accident, you should notify them of the accident. You’ll need to file paperwork with your company, they’ll need to file paperwork with their insurance company, and you’ll need to file a statement.

You have 30 days to notify your employer you were injured at work, but it’s better to notify them right away. Know you must inform your employer of your injury and the cause of the accident not only in person but also in writing. State laws require a written statement detailing and outlining the accident.

File Worker’s Compensation Forms

You must file form C-3 and mail it to your local Worker’s Compensation Board. Your employer should provide you with this document so you can move on with the process, but you can also obtain it online or by calling your worker’s comp representative. This form is mandatory, but you do have two years from the date of your injury to file it with the board.

The board will reach out to you when they receive your paperwork to handle your case. You should be available to answer questions, to discuss your case, and to help with medical documents supporting your injuries. This is not always easy to understand, so you might want to hire a legal representative to help you understand what you should do.

Contact an Attorney

On the job injuries are delicate situations. Your health is the most important thing you should focus on once you’re injured, but you might also have a case. Your worker’s compensation benefits should provide you the financial help you need when you are injured at work, but sometimes things happen to prevent this from happening. Using the wrong word in your statement, failing to inform the proper channels in the mandatory timeline, and even a boss or company who decides to fight the claim can hinder your financial and medical future.

An attorney can help you navigate the muddy waters associated with on the job injuries. Even if you have a fairly straightforward case and your company is working with you, someone who knows the law and understands the legal terms associated with a case like this is beneficial to have on your team. You’re not required to file a personal injury lawsuit if you don’t want to or need to, but a personal injury attorney can help with lengthy and complicated paperwork.

Food 101: Understanding What You’re Eating

Counting calories is a time-honored tradition for most persons who have ever been on a diet. The math is simple — if you want to lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than you burn. Some would also say that you can do it the other way around and burn more calories while maintaining the same caloric intake. However, that might be the less effective path.

When trying to maintain a healthy weight and a good fitness level, you should be even more worried about the source of calories. If you would take 2,000-calories worth of sugar, and 2,000-calories worth of green vegetables and lean meat, which one would be better for your health? The latter, of course, because there’s nothing except sugar in sugar, and it’s not good for you at all.

Food Is More Than Calories

Simple sugars are necessary for our bodies to work. Glucose is a simple sugar, and if the levels of glucose in your blood fall too low, you will be in serious trouble. Table sugar is made from two simple sugars, so one would imagine that it is useful for our organism. After all, it can feed it, and it has a caloric value.

The problem here is that our body needs more than just energy. Also, caloric value isn’t the best way to describe food, especially not the quality of the food. To stay healthy and have a balanced diet, you need food that contains all three macronutrients — fats, protein, and carbohydrates, which are a mix of simple and complex sugars.

Understanding Macronutrients

Each of these macronutrients has a role it plays in our body. Carbs provide us with energy. Complex carbs are especially important because they ensure a steady release of sugar and help you avoid sugar spikes. Proteins build your tissue and provide important support to many processes in your body. Fats keep you warm, store energy, and help ingestion of other important nutrients.

So, if you would eat 2,000 calories of sugar a day, nothing good would come out of it. If you would eat veggies and meat, or veggies and meat substitutes, the situation would be much different. Your body would have the macronutrient it needs, and it would be able to function well.

Some Macronutrients Are Better than Others

So, you know that complex carbs are much better than simple sugars. But do you know that fats also come in varieties of different qualities? When you look at a website dedicated to food and nutrition, you will see that they usually speak about different kinds of fats. The one that gets the worst reputation is trans fats or trans-fatty acids. These fats have a worse record than other fats when it comes to contributing to cardiovascular disease.

With protein, it’s a bit different. The major concern is the source of protein, especially when talking about animal protein. You will hear that poultry is healthier than beef, for example. That has little to do with the protein in the meat, but it has a lot to do with the quantity of fat that’s present in the meat.

The Tiny Nutrients That Make All the Difference

One other thing you get from fruit and veggies are important micronutrients. These are the vitamins, minerals, and trace elements you need to eat in very small amounts. But don’t let that fool you — if you don’t get enough of micronutrients, you will get sick eventually. In some cases, people turn to supplements to fulfill their need for micronutrients. This is common among those who live in dark climates or are vegetarians. For the most part, however, you can eat the micronutrient-rich vegetables and be assured that you are getting everything you need.

Understanding what you are eating is only your first step towards finding a balanced diet that fits your needs. Your next steps would include finding out whether you have any deficiencies, and creating meal plans that fit your lifestyle and level of activity. But keep this first lesson handy when you decide to advance your health and nutrition.

Tips for Getting a Good Night’s Sleep

Restful sleep is something that most of us take for granted. It’s only when you lie in bed staring at the alarm clock for six or more hours when you realize the importance of sleep. Rather than feeling rested and rejuvenated, you roll out of bed feeling mentally and physically exhausted. So, if you’re among the 50 million to 70 million Americans who suffer from a sleep disorder, consider the following tips for getting a good night’s rest.

Watch the Caffeine

While effective at waking you in the morning, caffeine can make it difficult to fall asleep at night. One study found that participants who consumed caffeinated beverages six hours before had lower-quality sleep than their counterparts who refrained from the substance. Caffeine acts as a stimulant by promoting the release of adrenaline in the sympathetic nervous system, which makes it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep. To encourage a good night’s rest, avoid all sources of caffeine — coffee, tea, soda, energy drinks, chocolate, etc. — for at least seven hours before bed.

Remove Distractions

You’ll struggle to fall asleep if your bedroom contains distractions. Whether it’s the TV, light shining through the windows, your smartphone or even the sound of a ticking clock, distractions such as these will capture your attention and divert your mind away from sleeping. Go through your bedroom to identify and eliminate all sleeping distractions. The ultimate goal is to create a pitch-black environment that’s completely quiet. Once your bedroom is free of distractions, your mind can focus strictly on sleeping.

Follow a Schedule

People with erratic sleep schedules tend to have higher rates of sleep disorder than their counterparts who follow a consistent schedule. This is because our bodies have an internal clock, known as the circadian clock, that regulates many of its processes. When you go to sleep at different times of night throughout the week, it throws off your body’s circadian clock, resulting in low-quality sleep. To keep your circadian clock working correctly, try to get into the habit of lying down to sleep at the same time every night and waking at the same time every morning. If you normally go to bed at 10:00 p.m. during the workweek, don’t stay up until 12:00 p.m. or later on the weekend. Instead, follow your existing schedule to encourage healthy, productive sleep.

Exercise

Exercise acts as a natural sleep aid by depleting your body’s energy levels and promoting the release of chemicals like endorphins in the brain. A study cited by the National Sleep Foundation found that people who exercise for at least 150 minutes per week experience significantly better sleep than their sedentary counterparts.

Choose the Right Mattress

Perhaps your sleep problems are attributed to your mattress. Most experts recommend replacing your mattress every 9 to 10 years. But don’t choose just any mattress. Instead, choose one that’s designed for the way in which you sleep. A mattress for side sleepers, for instance, provides adequate support for your spine and neck.

Take a Hot Bath or Shower

A hot bath or shower is the perfect bedtime ritual to encourage higher-quality sleep. It relaxes your body and mind, helping you fall asleep. Research has even shown that raising the temperature of your bath or shower by just 2 degrees encourages deeper sleep.

It’s frustrating when you try to fall asleep at night, only to lie wide awake until the sun comes up. Not only will you feel tired the following morning, but it can take a toll on your health by compromising your immune system and leaving you susceptible to infectious illness. Following these tips, however, will help you get a good night’s rest.

Ohio’s Controversial Renewable Energy Policy Could Cost More Than You Think

Amazon’s HQ2 shortlist now includes 20 major cities across the country, including Ohio’s own Columbus. Amazon’s shortlist was determined by a list of factors, including quality of life and economy.

Columbus actually ranks pretty high above most major American cities in these areas, except for one. With a lack of renewable energy standards in place for Amazon headquarters, the legislature’s controversial 2014 windmill minimum setback law threatens to imperil the capital’s bid for Amazon HQ2.

Passed in 2014, the minimum setback law mandated that windmills had to be at least 1,125 feet away from adjacent properties. Today, that law has cost the state close to 50,000 jobs, billions in revenue for downtown cities, as well as local school districts and businesses in the Northern and Central Ohio.

Right now, the state does have two utility-scale wind farms, as well as a large scale solar farm at Bowling Green. One is currently in production in Brown County-, which will be seven times larger than Bowling Green’s. Unfortunately, the state severed its Renewable Energy Standards, which forced utility companies to meet certain standards, such as reducing peak demand and obtaining a certain portion of electricity generated from renewables.

The state does provide consumers the option to acquire renewable energy from local suppliers or energy procurement consultants. Ohio is only one of few states that allow this, along with its neighbor Pennsylvania. If consumers want to pay more for renewable energy, they can. Although, this is far more unaffordable than states like New York, which also offer energy deregulation.

Without renewable energy standards in place, the choice to acquire renewables is slowly being squeezed out of consumers. While Ohio’s solar industry is rapidly growing, its lack of state support for other renewables puts it at a competitive disadvantage with other states seeking our renewable alternatives, as well as other cities bidding on HQ2.