Big issues are brewing in the Buckeye state, streets in its major cities are empty, jobs are scarce, and the state’s Republican-led legislature introduced legislation that today brought roughly 5,200 protesters to the state Capitol to protest an anti-union bill working through the legislature.

It’s almost enough to make one forget that the state’s renewable energy grant program shuttered its doors and ran out of money last year. But some funds may be on the way.

More than 200 home and business owners filed for the funds before Nov. 5, 2010, the program’s deadline, but were told they wouldn’t receive the funds, The Columbus Dispatch reported this past Sunday.

The lack of anticipated funding has forced some applicants to delay their installations, exacerbating the lack of jobs in the state. One installer recently expressed his frustration at the loss of the fund to State Representative Mark Foley (D).

“He was angry that the fund had gone away,” Foley said.

Last year the funding mechanism for Ohio’s Advanced Energy Fund at the Ohio Department of Development expired, and legislation proposed by Foley to extend and expand the 9-cent-per-month assessment on customers’ electric bills failed. The combination effectively ended the reserve for the fund.

The fund helped thousands of Ohioans install solar since the program was launched in 1999, said Green Energy Ohio Executive Director William Spratley.

Foley will reintroduce the legislation this year. “Hopefully by mid-March,” he said.

With republicans controlling both chambers of the legislature and the governorship, it’s an uphill battle for Foley.

“There are rumors that the republicans are going to go after renewable portfolio standards,” Foley said. “We’re going to push the Advanced Energy Fund. I don’t know that the political climate exists to do more.”

Republicans in the state, like elsewhere in the country, are focused on cutting back on government spending.

“They have real issues with government in the economy. Especially in spurring new industries like the solar and wind industries,” Foley said. “[Renewables are] an emerging market and should be taking off. But we’re cutting the knees out from under it in Ohio.”

Still, there may soon be some additional funding for the program, thanks to money coming back into a revolving loan fund, Spratley said.

“They won’t confirm it, but there’s about $4 million that will be coming to the program,” he said. However, “They probably won’t make the rebates as high as they were.”

The Ohio Department of Development did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

A similar issue is at play in Florida. The state recently approved $29 million in additional funding to partly clear the backlog of solar rebates that citizens were awarded but hadn’t received.

Image courtesy of NREL of an Ohio installation.