Why haven’ t lawmakers repealed nuclear bail out?
State legislators seem to think they know better than voters what’s good for Ohioans.
Ohio’s Republican-run House and Senate returned to the Statehouse last week and said, in so many words, they need more time to think about repealing the $60 million Ohio purchase — House
Bill 6 — that requires Ohio electricity consumers to bail out two nuclear power plants.
State legislators seem to think they know better than voters what’s good for Ohioans. Funny, that’s the same patronizing attitude that got HB6 passed last year. When rank and file Ohioans want something done at the Statehouse, the General Assembly’s reply always seems to be, “What’s the big rush?” But when the Powers That Be want something done, the General Assembly’s reply always seems to be, “Yes, sir!”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Southern Ohio has called HB6 a “racketeering conspiracy involving approximately $60 million paid to a 501(c)(4) entity to pass and uphold a billion-dollar nuclear plant bailout.” That alleged conspiracy led a federal grand jury to indict Republican former House Speaker Larry Householder, of Perry County’s Glenford, and four other Ohio political figures.
HB6 requires Ohio electricity consumers to bail out the Perry and Davis
Besse nuclear power plants, once owned by Akron-based First-Energy Corp., plus two coal-fueled power plants jointly owned by a group of electric utilities, including First-Energy and Dayton Power and Light.
There was one good Statehouse move last week: new House Speaker Robert Cupp, a Lima Republican, sent proposed HB6 repeals to a new House Select Committee on Energy Policy and Oversight. Otherwise the repeal bills might have gone to the House Public Utilities Committee (chaired by Rep. Jamie Callender, a Lake County Republican who co-sponsored HB6; the Perry nuclear plant is in his district) or the Energy and Natural Resources Committee (chaired by Rep. Nino Vitale, an Urbana Republican and Householder ally).
The state Senate’s HB6 repeal bills have been assigned to the Senate’s Energy and Public Utilities Committee, chaired by Republican Sen. Steve Wilson, a-Warren County banker. Wilson said in July Householder had “breached the trust of Ohioans” but that HB6 “was good public policy for the future of energy in our state, I was proud to work on it.” Any questions, ratepayers?
General Assembly Republicans who voted for HB6 — 42 of the House’s 61 Republicans, 16 of the Senate’s 24 Republicans — seem to be betting that Ohioans ticked off the power plant bailout may be distracted by this fall’s ferocious presidential race.
Maybe HB6’s Statehouse godparents are correct. Maybe Ohioans, distracted by the jugglers and clowns of presidential politicking, will forget about HB6. Distraction’s worked like a charm inWashington. It could work just as well at the Statehouse; no shortage of clowns there.
Father of Labor Day
Black Clevelander John Patterson Green (18451940) is the Father of Labor Day. As a Republican member of Ohio’s House, Green won passage in 1890 of a bill establishing Labor Day as a state holiday. In 1892, Congress made it a national holiday.
Working Ohioans may get a chance to relax this Labor Day weekend. And they may hear wisps of political oratory about the nobility of work. That’s well-deserved praise.
What’s not deserved is self-congratulation by some Ohio officeholders about how well they serve working Ohioans. U.S. median household income in 2019, the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey reports, was $61,937. In Ohio, it was 9 percent less — $56,111. The legislature meanwhile ladles out “job-producing” business tax breaks and subsidies (and HB6 is one). Ohioans work harder than ever — for less. At the Statehouse, who’s working for them?