Lawmakers could delay House Bill 6 fees
COLUMBUS – Ohio lawmakers could delay fees set to hit Ohioans’ electric bills next month as they continue to debate whether to repeal a $1 billion bailout for two nuclear plants.
Rep. Jim Hoops, R-napoleon, has proposed delaying fees for one year as lawmakers struggle to find a way to repeal and replace House Bill 6, the law at the heart of an alleged $61 million bribery scheme.
Without any change, residential customers can expect an 85-cent fee each month on their electric bills starting Jan. 1.
Those fees, and larger ones assessed on businesses, would raise about $150 million a year for two nuclear plants outside Toledo and Cleveland owned by Energy Harbor, which was previously called Firstenergy Solutions. That company argued that without that money, the plants would close.
In July, the FBI arrested former Speaker Larry Householder and four others in connection with an alleged scheme to help Householder gain control of the House, pass a nuclear bailout and defend that law against a ballot effort to upend it. Two defendants have pleaded guilty; Householder and two others have pleaded not guilty.
Hoops introduced the one-year delay in House Bill 798 Tuesday. The bill would give lawmakers some breathing room to decide what happens next. The FBI is still investigating the alleged corruption, and more arrests could be coming, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio Dave Devillers warned in July.
To take effect immediately, Hoops’ bill would need support from twothirds of lawmakers in each chamber.
Speaker Bob Cupp, R-lima, said Hoops’ bill is the result of “extensive hearings and conversations and reflects feedback we have heard from our members on this complex issue.”
The bill will receive a hearing in committee Wednesday. “We’ll see where we go from there,” Cupp said in a statement.
Rep. Dave Leland, D-columbus, said Republicans should stop kicking the can down the road.
“Ohioans shouldn’t see their utility bills go up as a result of the largest corruption scandal in Ohio history. Not
Without any change, residential customers can expect an 85-cent fee each month on their electric bills starting Jan. 1.
now – not ever!” Leland said. “How many people have to be arrested, indicted, plead guilty, resign or be fired before Republicans will definitively say that House Bill 6 has to go?”
The Gop-controlled House doesn’t support a straight repeal of House Bill 6. Given the opportunity last month to repeal the law via a Democratic amendment, most GOP lawmakers rejected that option.
Rep. Bill Seitz, R-green Township, gave a boisterous floor speech in defense of the law and his fellow Republicans.
“There is not a single member of this chamber who has been convicted or pled guilty to a durn thing,” he said.
Other bills to repeal a portion or all of House Bill 6 have received hearings but no votes so far. Lawmakers in the Gop-controlled Ohio Senate would review any House proposal sent to them, spokesman John Fortney said.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, Cincinnati and Columbus have filed lawsuits to block the fees. A judge has not yet ruled on those injunctions.