The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
GOP lawmakers discuss plans to repeal House Bill 6
DeWine reverses position, supports repeal
Republican state lawmakers July 23 discussed their forthcoming legislative efforts to fully repeal the bill that gives ratepayerfunded subsidies to the state’s two nuclear power plants including North Perry’s Perry Nuclear Power Plant.
House Bill 6, signed into law exactly one year ago is now at the center of what U.S. Attorney for the Southern of Ohio David DeVillers called likely the largest bribery scheme ever perpetrated against the state of Ohio.
Speaker of the House Larry Householder, R-Glenford, and four others are accused of “violating the racketeering statute through honest services wire fraud, receipt of millions of dollars in bribes and money laundering.”
State Reps. Laura Lanese, R-Grove City, said at the July 23 press conference she is asking the legislature to repeal House Bill 6, “not only because it was bad policy from the start, but because we need to reassure Ohioans that their representatives, be they Democrat or Republican, are truly working in their interest.”
House Bill 6 was signed into law a little more than three months after it was introduced.
The bill, among other things, gives North Perry’s Perry Nuclear Power Plant and Ottawa County’s DavisBesse Nuclear Power Plant $150 million annually between 2021 and 2027. The funds are raised through charges paid by residential, commercial and industrial electric customers.
FirstEnergy Solutions, the owner of Ohio’s two nuclear plants, filed for bankruptcy in March 2018 and had plans to shut down both plants by 2021 if it did not receive subsidies. FirstEnergy Solutions officials emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy Feb. 27 of this year as Energy Harbor.
Lanese July 22 was seeking co-sponsors for legislation she is sponsoring along with Rep. Mark Romanchuk, R-Ontario. Romanchuk was unable to attend the July 23 new conference, Lanese said. Ohio Sen. Stephanie Kunze, R-Hilliard, and Rep. Rick Carfagna, R-Genoa Township, also spoke at the news conference.
Kunze said she is sponsoring a Senate bill along with Sen. Sean O’Brien, DBazetta, who spoke at a separate press conference July 22 held by Democrats. Carfagna has signed on as cosponsor of the Lanese-Romanchuk repeal effort. All lawmakers who have spoken at the two news conferences voted against House Bill 6 last year.
“I think it’s fair to say that no one in the Ohio legislature, even those who voted against House Bill 6, it was not lost on them what was at stake with regard to jobs and the economic livelihood of the areas surrounding these nuclear facilities,” Carfagna said.
Lanese said a full repeal is needed due to the allegations against Householder.
“From the beginning, to the middle, to the end, this bill was tainted,” she said. “While these allegations may eventually prove to be false, that does not remove the taint. That’s why we need to start afresh with any kind of energy policy going forward.”
Carfagna said that following a repeal, there will be an opportunity to look at some of the elements of House Bill 6 and discuss whether it makes sense to restore or alter them. Or approach those elements differently.
One day after saying he did not support repealing House Bill 6, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine reversed his position during his July 23 press conference. He said he still supports the policy of the bill, but “the process by which it was created stinks. It’s terrible, it’s not acceptable.”
DeWine said lawmakers should repeal and replace the bill “through an open process that the public can have confidence in.”
House Bill 6 sponsor Rep. Jamie Callender, RConcord Township, who said in a July 21 interview he was shocked at the news of Householder’s arrest, defended the contents of the bill. He said the bill saved jobs and protected the tax base.
“It’s very said that these allegations are tainting what was a good bill and was very good for Lake County,” Callender said.
Callender sponsored the bill along with Rep. Shane Wilkin, R-Lynchburg. Callender’s House district includes the Perry nuclear plant.
According to the affidavit in the federal case against Householder, two freshmen state representatives who sponsored House Bill 6, referred to as “Representatives 3 and 4” in the document, were alleged “Householder” candidates and Generation Now spent money supporting both by paying for advertising, campaign strategy and staffing.
Rep. Diane Grendell, R-Chesterland, who was sworn-in to fill a vacant seat on the day that the House voted on House Bill 6, also defended the legislation in a statement.
“I voted for it because I believed, and still do, that it was good for Ohio jobs and energy customers,” Grendell said. “It reduced the clean energy rate that customers were paying, and reverted those dollars from less-efficient and far less utilized ‘clean energy’ sources like windmills and solar, and put them toward more efficient, sustainable and widely used clean energy sources like natural gas and nuclear.”
Grendell filled a position that was vacated by Rep. Sarah LaTourette, R-Chester Township, who stepped down in early May 2019 after DeWine appointed her to serve as executive director of Ohio Family and Children First. LaTourette voted for Householder’s opponent Ryan Smith, RBidwell, for speaker. Householder appointed a panel to interview candidates after LaTourette announced her intention to step down.
Following Householder’s arrest, state legislators on both sides of the aisle have called for the speaker to resign. DeWine is among those who have called for his resignation. Lanese and Romanchuk are among House Republicans who have called for his resignation. Grendell, however, said “I choose not to jump to conclusions and instead, will wait for due process to play out.
“Just like any American who faces charges, he is considered innocent until proven guilty,” she said.
In addition to the Lanese-Romanchuk bill, Ohio Reps. Michael J. Skindell, D-Lakewood, and Michael O’Brien, D-Warren, have also announced a bill to repeal House Bill 6.
“Corruption has no place in our government, regardless of political party. When corruption is revealed, it is important we act quickly to fix what has been broken,” Skindell said in a July 22 statement announcing the bill.
Lake County’s other Ohio House member, Rep. John Rogers, D-Mentor-on-theLake, also voted for House Bill 6 last year. Rogers said July 22 that at the time of the interview he did not have any specific legislation in front of him and said he does not sign off on legislation until he has a chance to review it. Rogers also said he has no issue revisiting the legislation.
“The reason I supported House Bill 6 is because of the economic impact those two plants have in Ohio as well as throughout the entire state and the number of jobs and the number of families that are affected by those jobs,” Rogers said. “The underlying premise of saving the plants in my mind is still a valid premise. There were a lot of things that were put into the bill that was ultimately voted on that I didn’t necessarily agree with. That’s not uncommon with all pieces of legislation, so you have to weigh the good with the bad.”
In addition to subsidizing the two nuclear plants, House Bill 6 also allows utilities to charge ratepayers up to $1.50 per month to subsidize two coal-powered electric plants run by Ohio Valley Energy Corp. One of those plants is in southern Ohio and the other is based in Indiana.
By the end of 2020, House Bill 6 eliminates state electric mandates for energy efficiency, peak demand and the solar renewable portfolio standard carve-out. A solar carve-out is the part of a state’s renewable portfolio standard that sets a specific level of electricity to be generated from solar panels.
Additionally, the renewable portfolio standard will be reduced and eventually eliminated by the end of 2026. The renewable portfolio standard is a requirement that a specified percentage of the electricity that utilities sell comes from renewable resources.
“Certainly the energy efficiency guidelines and a number of the other components of the bill, or what was eliminated by the bill, certainly I think warrant further review and possibly restoration,” Rogers said.