Senate committee faces deadline on nuclear bailout bill

The bill that would bail out the state’s two nuclear power plants has been described by proponents as a jobs bill, a clean-energy bill, a bill that supports electricity being generated in Ohio and a bill that would cut electricity rates for consumers.

So Sen. Steve Wilson, R-maineville, chairman of the Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee, asked the bill’s House sponsors on Tuesday which is most important.

“We have a daunting task before us,” Wilson said.

The committee is up against a deadline to complete work on House Bill 6, and Wilson said during the committee hearing that the panel doesn’t have the luxury of time that the House had in studying the bill. Hence, his question about priorities.

The owner of the plants on Lake Erie, Firstenergy Solutions, has said it needs an answer from legislators this summer because of the expense of refueling the Perry and Davis-besse plants. Without help, Davis-besse would shut down next May and Perry would close in 2021, Firstenergy said.

One of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Jamie Callender, R-concord, declined to answer Wilson.

“It’s a holistic approach,” he said. “I don’t know that I can pull one thing out and say it is the most important.”

Besides shoring up the two nuclear plants, the legislation, which passed the House last month, would gut the state’s renewable energy and energy-efficiency standards. It also would provide support for two coal-fired power plants, one in Ohio and one in Indiana, owned by Ohio Valley Electric, by formalizing the current policy of charging customers when the plants sell electricity below the cost of production.

The legislation would raise nearly $200 million a year by imposing a fee on consumers meant primarily to support Firstenergy Solutions, a former Firstenergy subsidiary trying to climb out of bankruptcy. The money also would benefit the developers of five solar projects in the state.

Consumers would pay 50 cents a month, with the fee rising to $1 a month in 2021 for six years to fund the Ohio Clean Air Program, which would disburse the money.

Callender and the other sponsor, Rep. Shane Wilkin, R-hillsboro, defended the proposal before the committee’s senators, who questioned the proposal’s plan to help nuclear plants but not wind energy, especially at a time when more natural-gas-fired generation is coming online.

“House Bill 6 replaces failed government mandates with a common sense, predictable plan that works,” Wilkin said.

Sen. Sean O’brien, D-cortland, questioned the wisdom of eliminating the energy-efficiency standard, noting that research has shown that for every dollar invested, the program saved $2.60 in energy use.

“That’s a good investment,” he said.