Subsidy for coal plants in question

A proposal to subsidize two coal-fired power plants is no longer on a fast track and might not pass at all.

This is a shift from last month, when House Bill 239 seemed to be moving quickly toward becoming law, despite opposition from consumer and environmental groups.

The Ohio House Public Utilities Committee introduced a new version of the bill on Tuesday to respond to opponents’ concerns. However, the panel’s members said additional changes are likely.

“It may end up having to wait until next fall, and that would be a terrible shame if it did,” said House Majority Leader Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, who also is the committee’s chairman.

He said the proposal is being slowed down because “everybody wants to be the draftsman and everybody wants to be the lawyer.”

“It’s like a lion tamer,” he said of his job. “OK. You’ve got 50 lions around here, and you need to get a big bullwhip and snap it at them occasionally and say, ‘Settle down.’”

The measure is co-sponsored by Rep. Rick Carfagna, R-Genoa Township, who said he remains hopeful that some version will pass at some point.

Under the bill, the owners of Ohio Valley Electric Corp. would receive a guarantee of income at times when the market price of electricity is less than the cost to operate the power plants. That money would come from a charge to consumers.

If the plants become profitable, customers would receive a credit.

The power plants are Kyger Creek in Cheshire, which went online in 1955 and can generate about 1,100 megawatts, and Clifty Creek in Madison, Indiana, also started in 1955 and with a capacity of about 1,300 megawatts.

Ohio Valley Electric has more than a dozen co-owners, including American Electric Power. AEP customers already pay a monthly charge for the company’s share, but that charge is subject to renewal by state regulators every few years. The bill would extend the charge and allow other Ohio-based coowners to have a similar deal.

Carfagna introduced a revision to the bill that says households would pay no more than $2.50 per month and that would set an expiration date of 2030 for the subsidy. There has been a hard pushback against the proposal, including from competing energy companies.

Also on Tuesday, the Ohio Environmental Council released a television ad urging consumers to oppose the bill.

“Ohio lawmakers and their corporate utility friends want to raise your utility bill,” the ad says. The environmental group said the ad is running statewide.