Governor says he will sign controversial energy bill

The Ohio Senate COLUMBUS — this week approved a bill that will provide bailouts for nuclear power plants and will dramatically scale back energy efficiency and renewable energy programs.

Senate Energy Committee Chairman Steve Wilson, R-Maineville, said the legislation would keep the nuclear plants open and reduce electricity bills for residential customers by $2.82 a month initially and by $3.78 eventually.

“At the end of the day, the winner in this legislation is the ratepayer,” he said.

In its current form, the bill would add an 80-cent per month charge to residential customers to raise up to $150 million a year in subsidies to keep open nuclear plants owned by First Energy Solutions. FES would need to open its books to state regulators to qualify for the subsidies.

It would also authorize $1.50 per month charge to residential customers to help fund the operation of two coal-fired plants owned by the Ohio Valley Electric Corp. AEP, Dayton Power & Light and Duke Energy are among utilities that hold an ownership stake in the OVEC plants.

Supporters of the bill said nuclear power is an important source of clean energy and they argued that the First Energy Solutions-owned plants provide 1,400 good-paying jobs in communities along Lake Erie.

Opponents called the bill a case of government picking winners and losers and favoring one industry over another. State Sen. Joe Uecker, R-Miami Twp., said the bailout sets a “bad precedent.” Scaling back mandates for utilities to buy energy from renewable sources and offer efficiency programs will lead to losses of jobs and investment elsewhere in Ohio, he said.

It is unclear if the House will agree to Senate changes to the bill, which has been the subject of intense lobbying and more than $10 million in TV ads. House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, said he lacked the 50 votes needed to agree to the latest version because four members were absent this week. He plans to hold a concurrence vote on Aug. 1.

Time for further debate is running out.

FES, which filed for bankruptcy and announced plans to close the plants, initially told lawmakers it needed a decision on whether Ohio would authorize subsidies by June 30. When legislators missed that deadline, FES signaled it could wait until early August.

Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday that he will sign the energy bill. “I’m confident House Bill 6 will be passed. It’s important to the state of Ohio to be able to have a significant amount of energy that is created to be carbon-free. By having nuclear plants, frankly, today is the only way we’re going to be able to achieve that.”

He added, “Our goal all along is to save the nuclear plants, save the jobs but also to keep the cost of energy down, the cost of utilities down for the ratepayers.”

Daniel Sawmiller, Ohio energy policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council said in a written statement: “Ohio is the only state in the country bailing out extremely old coal and nuclear plants and paying for it by gutting its clean energy standards. This bill is a giant step backwards for Ohio and we will see the consequences for years to come as our bills rise and our clean energy jobs plummet. Other states in the region will certainly appreciate the opportunity to hoover up the jobs coming out of the growing clean energy sector.”