Kudos for planned Ohio power plant investment

Good news came this week out of the U.S. Commerce Department, which says Japan is planning to fund three projects totaling approximately $36 billion in the coming years — one each in Ohio, Texas and Georgia. According to Reuters, this is the first wave of investments in the planned $550 billion reportedly pledged as part of a trade deal with the U.S.The Ohio project is expected to be a $33 billion natural gas-fired power plant in Portsmouth — perhaps the largest ever, according to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Reuters reports Lutnick said the plant would have a 9.2 gigawatt capacity, and would be operated by SB Energy, a subsidiary of SoftBank Group, a Japanese tech investor. (It's impossible not to tie talk of power generation with data centers these days.) Lutnick and Japan's economic and trade minister Ryosei Akazawa reportedly worked out the final details of this deal last week, according to Reuters, which quoted Akazawa as saying "All of these projects involve Japan and the United States working together to build supply chains in strategically important fields." Texas is prepping for a deepwater oil terminal project, and Georgia is planned to be the site of a new industrial diamonds facility.But there are still billions more to be spent. Reuters reported Akazawa implied there may be more announcements coming in March.Japanese companies have proved to be excellent partners in our region in the past. So, while a power plant near Portsmouth is exciting news and Ohioans will not want to be greedy, it is worth hoping that perhaps other projects might land in the Buckeye State as a result of this renewed alliance. For now, however, credit is certainly due to the folks at the Commerce Department who got this one off the ground. Ogden Newspapers