The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
After Speaker of the House’s arrest, efforts to repeal Bill 6 begin
In the wake of Ohio Speaker of the House Larry Householder’s arrest, both Republican and Democratic state lawmakers seeking to repeal the nuclear bailout bill at the heart of the alleged bribery scandal.
Householder and four others were arrested July 21 for allegedly violating the “racketeering statute through honest services wire fraud, receipt of millions of dollars in bribes and money laundering.” The $60 million case was called “likely the largest bribery scheme ever perpetrated against the state of Ohio,” by U.S. Attorney David DeVillers.
House Bill 6 was signed into law in July 2019, a little more than three months after it was first 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.
A legislative aide for Representative Laura Lanese confirmed July 22 that the Grove City Republican and Rep. Mark Romanchuk, ROntario, are seeking cosponsors on a bill to fully repeal House Bill 6. An aide for Romanchuk said a news conference regarding the legislation is scheduled for July 23.
Both have also called on Householder to resign.
“Ohioans deserve leaders they can trust,” Lanese said in a July 22 tweet. “With the announcement of the FBI’s allegations against Speaker Householder yesterday and the detailed charges in the complaint, it is clear that he must resign as Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives.
Two Democratic House members, Michael J. Skindell, D-Lakewood, and Michael O’Brien, D-Warren, also announced July 22 they have plans to introduce a bill that would repeal HB6. O’Brien along with Rep. Gil Blair, D- Niles, and Sen. Sean O’Brien, DBazetta, held a news conference to discuss efforts to repeal House Bill 6.
Those in both parties who are seeking the repeal voted against House Bill 6 last year.
“HB6 was a bad bill and all of us in this room did not support that, it had many problems with it,” Sean O’Brien said at the news conference. The senator has plans to introduce a repeal bill in that chamber.
Sean O’Brien said that campaign finance reform is also needed.
Federal investigators allege that Generation Now was incorporated in February 2017 as a “social welfare entity purporting to promote energy independence and economic development,” but was secretly controlled by Householder. Millions of dollars from the electric company known in the complaint as “Company A” were allegedly used to support Householder’s bid to become speaker, to support House candidates believed to back Householder for the position and for personal benefit. Pursuant to federal law, the names and addresses of contributors to 501(c)(4)s are not made available for public inspection.
“Until we have some real finance campaign reform, things like (the alleged bribery) could pop up again,” Sean O’Brien said. “The tip of the iceberg is House Bill 6. That is the end result of what happened. The fundamental problem, underneath that tip, is campaign finance. Money has to be transparent, we have to know where it goes to, who is giving it to us and how is it being spent. Until you have that we’re going to continue to see problems like we’re seeing.”
He said they’re first going to repeal House Bill 6 and then look at campaign finance reform.
Michael O’Brien said he’s seeking a repeal of House Bill 6 to the point where “it never existed.”
Regarding the Perry and Davis-Besse plants, Michael O’Brien said, “whatever happens to their corporations happens with their corporations.
“Don’t rely on the consumers of the state of Ohio to bail you out because it’s not going to happen,” he said.
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.
The Perry Nuclear Plant employs about 700 people, 500 of whom live in Lake County, according to Lake County Commissioner Jerry Cirino’s testimony during a House Bill 6 hearing last year. Cirino said in a July 21 phone interview that he is angry about Householder’s alleged criminal conduct, but supports House Bill 6, which he said saved jobs in Lake and Ottawa counties.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said at his July 22 press conference that he does not support a repeal of House Bill 6. He said the allegations against Householder does not change where he stands on policy. He said nuclear plants play a role in creating a balanced energy portfolio. Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said he also does not support a repeal.
Outside of the state legislature, groups that opposed House Bill 6 also began calling for the legislation to be repealed following Householder’s arrest.
Among them was the Sierra Club. The group called House Bill 6 “the nation’s most regressive energy legislation.”
“The whole process around HB 6 — from its passage through the legislature, to the attempted referendum campaign — was riddled with red flags,” said Neil Waggoner, senior campaign representative for Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign in Ohio. “It’s therefore shocking, but not surprising, that after a campaign around a bill based on lies, greed, and a complete disregard of facts now involves criminal corruption at the highest levels of Ohio’s state government.”
American Wind Energy Association’s Eastern State Affairs Director Andrew Gohn in a statement called for “a full examination of the circumstances surrounding this attack on clean energy and for Gov. DeWine and the legislature to pause implementation of HB 6 and ultimately repeal this harmful and regressive legislation.
“The legislative push to bail out legacy generation and roll back Ohio’s renewable energy commitments was always against the will of Ohioans, who overwhelmingly support renewable energy,” Gohn said. “It now appears that the passage of this bill was not just against the will of the people, but also may have involved serious and possibly criminal impropriety.”
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.