The more you learn, the worse House Bill 6 looks

By now, readers might be tired of hearing about the state law just passed to bail out two Firstenergy Solutions nuclear plants and greatly undermine the development of renewable energy in Ohio. We recognize that, but bear with us: The whole exercise has been such a textbook example of legislative abuse that it should be studied, so that perhaps Ohioans won’t tolerate it the next time lawmakers are determined to serve moneyed interests over the public good.

The law itself is awful — forcing all Ohio electricity ratepayers to bail out old and uncompetitive nuclear and coal plants even as it drastically undercuts the development of renewable energy in the state, all but guaranteeing Ohio dirtier air and a trailing role in a major industry of the future.

Factor in the $1.65 million in campaign cash that utilities spread around the Statehouse to cultivate support, plus a multimillion-dollar advertising blitz and you get a monumentally discouraging view of How a Bill Becomes a Law.

Dispatch Reporter Randy Ludlow’s story on Sunday laid out the campaign contributions, with data compiled by the Energy and Policy Institute: Starting in 2017, Firstenergy Corp. and its employees gave nearly $1 million to state representatives and senators, Gov. Mike Dewine, other officeholders, political action committees and political parties.

The remaining $650,000 or so came from AEP, Dayton Power & Light and Duke Energy, all of which own shares in two 1950sera coal plants that also will be propped up by the new law.

Looking at giving by all utilities and only to House members, 40 of the 53 who initially voted yes on

House Bill 6 received a total of nearly $323,000.

House Speaker Larry Householder’s ties to Firstenergy are extensive, and he made passage of HB 6 a top priority. He received $30,000 from AEP and $24,415 from Firstenergy, but the utilities also helped him indirectly, with large contributions to House candidates who would support his bid to become speaker.

All spring, lawmakers rushed to get the bill passed because Firstenergy Solutions declared that it had to have a bailout secured by June 30 or it would be forced to begin the process of shutting the plants down.

The unseemly rush to do the company’s bidding reached its peak on July 22, as the next day’s final vote approached. It was going to be close, and three “yes” votes — Reps. Bob Cupp of Lima, Jim Butler of Oakwood and Tom Brinkman of Cincinnati — were in Chicago for a conference.

So urgent was the need to get them back to Columbus for the vote that Householder apparently proposed, and Dewine’s office agreed, to send a state plane to fetch them, at a cost to taxpayers of nearly $5,700.

Thanks to a tipster, word of the extravagance got out, the flight was canceled late on the night before the vote and the lawmakers somehow got back to town without the private plane.

HB 6 passed by a single vote and Ohio is stuck with what one critic called “the worst energy bill of the 21st century.”

Other states, including New York, Illinois and New Jersey, have bailed out their old nuclear plants, but only Ohio’s legislature has seen fit to also sabotage the future of renewable energy while at it.

It is not a distinction to be proud of.