House Bill 6 still in full effect

Bill to subsidize state’s 2 nuclear plants remains fully intact, for now

Nearly five months after Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four others were arrested for an alleged briber y scheme involving House Bill 6, that bill remains in full effect with charges to subsidize the state’s two nuclear plants set to begin Jan. 1.

In the aftermath of those arrests, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers introduced bills seeking a repeal of the legislation at the center of the alleged scandal. New Ohio House Speaker Bob Cupp, RLima, formed the Select Committee on Energy Policy and Oversight to examine proposed repeal and replacement legislation.

Only one bill, House Bill 798, was approved out of that committee. That bill was introduced Dec. 1 by the select committee’s chairman, Jim Hoops, R-Napoleon. His bill would delay the subsidies to nuclear plant owner Energy Harbor by one year.

Hoops’ bill would delay the nuclear charge to ratepayers by one year until Jan. 1, 2022, and also delays the first payment to Energy Harbor (owner of the two nuclear plants) until April 2022.

House Bill 6 was signed into law in July 2019. It among other things gives North Perry’s Perry Nuclear Power Plant and Ottawa County’s Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plant $150 million annually between 2021 and 2027. The funds are raised through charges paid by residential, commercial and industrial electric customers. Residential customers will be charged 85 cents per month.

Hoops’ bill would delay the nuclear charge to ratepayers by one year until Jan. 1, 2022, and also delays the first payment to Energy Harbor (owner of the two nuclear plants) until April 2022. Hoops voted for House Bill 6’s passage last year.

“The bottom line is this legislation allows us to take a pause and truly see if Energy Harbor needs a subsidy,” Hoops said at a Dec. 2 House Select Committee on Energy Policy and Oversight hearing. “Then, the General Assembly can reassess this program after the first audit report and recommendations come back.”

Energy Harbor is a former FirstEnergy subsidiary known as FirstEnergy Solutions. The company filed for bankruptcy in March 2018 and had plans to shut down both plants by 2021 if it did not receive subsidies. FirstEnergy Solutions emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Feb. 27, 2020, under its new name.

Hoops’ bill passed out of the select committee in an 8-7 vote. All Democrats on the committee voted against its passage along with Rep. Mark Romanchuk, R-Ontario, who was a sponsor of a House Bill 6 repeal bill.

That bill was not brought to the floor during a marathon Ohio House of Representatives Session Dec. 17, which was the legislative body’s last scheduled session for 2020. The House may convene for another session, but no date has yet been set. The bill would also need to pass the Ohio Senate before being sent to the governor’s desk for final approval.

The General Assembly ends at the end of December, meaning any effort to repeal or delay the effects of House Bill 6 would have to start from scratch in 2021.

Democrats in the select committee criticized the lack of repeal legislation out of the committee.

“House Bill 6 was the product of the largest bribery scandal in the history of the state of Ohio,” Rep. David Leland, D-Columbus said in a statement Dec. 16 after Hoops’ bill passed the committee. “So far, we have had five federal indictments, two guilty pleas, five energy executives that have been terminated and the top utility regulator in the state has resigned.

“The only way we can show that Ohio is not for sale is to repeal HB 6—and Republican leadership is still the only thing keeping that from happening.”

Leland is the select committee’s ranking member.

Rep. Mike O’Brien, DWarren, was a sponsor of House Bill 6 repeal legislation introduced in the wake of the arrests.

“Failing to repeal House Bill 6 tells big corporations that it’s OK to buy off politicians in Ohio — it’s not,” O’Brien said in a Dec. 16 statement. “It’s unconscionable that Republicans continue to fight harder for this tainted legislation and their disgraced former speaker than they do for the taxpayers who are going to have to foot the bill for this corrupt legislation.”

Leland and O’Brien both voted against House Bill 6 last year.

At one committee hearing on Hoops’ bill, Perry Schools Superintendent Jack Thompson spoke as an interested party.

He said House Bill 6 helps “protect a tax base that helps fund our students’ education.” He added that the Perry Nuclear Power Plant represents about 20 percent of the total employment in the school district’s area. The plant employs about 700 people.

“We believe that HB 6 is good law for everyone and, whereas we do not condone any alleged misdoings of some who were proponents of the law, we certainly believe that the law was passed by many based on the merits of the bill,” Thompson said. “We do, however, understand the legislature’s desire to review the legislation. Our school district asks that no matter the final decisions made by this body, that you keep in mind our schools.

“It is our belief that any action on this issue can be done in a way that holds our funding levels harmless, therefore, allowing us to continue employing our teachers, maintaining our facilities, and providing the best possible education for Ohio’s future— our students.”

Outside of the state legislature, other efforts to delay nuclear subsidy payments to Energy Harbor have been made. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost filed two lawsuits in Franklin County Common Pleas Court seeking to prevent Energy Harbor from collecting those fees.

“The people of Ohio are about to be shaken down for money they should not have to pay based on how HB6 was enacted,” Yost said in a November statement. “There is no process in place to return the money to residents once it leaves their accounts – so why take it?”

The cities of Columbus and Cincinnati also filed a suit in Franklin County Common Pleas Court to stop the nuclear subsidies from being collected. Attorneys for the cities allege that House Bill 6 is an “unconstitutional tax” and that the “scheme to corrupt the legislative process demonstrates a clear violation of the Ohio Corrupt Practices Act.”

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 elec t r ic 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. Householder’s case is pending in federal court.

In late October two of the men arrested for their alleged roles in the scandal, FirstEnergy lobbyist Juan Cespedes and political strategist Jeff Longstreth, pleaded guilty to racketeering charges.