That’s a giant leap backward for Ohio’s energy and economy

The Great Ohio Nuke Bailout of 2019 is now law; Tuesday’s passage of House Bill 6, followed quickly by Gov. Mike Dewine’s signature, obligates every Ohio electricity customer to chip in each month to ease the balance sheets of the Davis-besse and Perry nuclear power plants owned by Firstenergy Solutions, a spinoff of the Akron-based utility giant Firstenergy Corp.

A skeptical observer might conclude that the bailout was inevitable, given the $150,000 or so in campaign contributions that Firstenergy spread among House Speaker Larry Householder and at least 15 other Republican House candidates in 2018 who supported Householder’s bid for the speakership.

That’s distasteful, but at least there are arguments for and against propping up nuclear power in Ohio.

There is no good argument, however, for the bill’s shortsighted and wrongheaded attack on renewable energy. It originally was touted as a clean energy measure, because the bailout takes the form of per-megawatt payments to producers of carbon-free energy. Conveniently for Firstenergy Solutions, the output of the two nuclear plants constitutes 90% of Ohio’s current carbon-free energy output, so the company will collect the bulk of the payments — as much as $150 million per year.

The remaining $20 million or so will go to solar energy producers, but only a handpicked few that already have committed to their projects.

If HB 6 truly were about “clean energy,” it would ramp up incentives to attract new producers of solar, wind and other types of renewable energy. Ohio’s current effort in that area consists of two targets, set in law.

One, the renewable portfolio standard, required utilities to generate at least 12.5% of their power

from renewable sources by 2027. A separate mandate required them to reduce customers’ power use by 22.5% by 2027 by promoting energy efficiency measures. Ohioans have been paying small surcharges on their electric bills to support the two mandates.

Rather than boosting these standards, which are credited with bringing 5,000 jobs to Ohio in 2018 alone, HB 6 guts them. The surcharges are eliminated; the renewable portfolio target is reduced to 8.5% immediately and will be eliminated in 2027. The energy efficiency requirement is similarly phased out.

Backers of HB 6 point to this as a savings for Ohioans, because the new surcharge for the nuclear bailout is smaller than the renewable and energy efficiency surcharges being removed. Rep. Bill Seitz, R-cincinnati, an implacable foe of environmental protection who likes to use words like “enviro-nazi,” declared that ratepayers are the ones being bailed out, given the switch in surcharges.

Hogwash. All the surcharges at issue — for the nuclear bailout and for renewable energy and energy efficiency — are measured in quarters and dimes.

The real cost of HB 6 is in the giant backward step it takes, for Ohio’s economy and for a cleaner future. It props up two uncompetitive plants with a history of bad business decisions and ensures that Ohio will fall behind other states that are building new industries around renewable energy.

Not content with stifling new clean energy, it ensures dirtier air by propping up two coal plants, one of which is in Indiana.

Democratic Rep. Casey Weinstein of Hudson put it succinctly: “We are bailing out a failing corporation on the back of a growing industry. It really blows my mind.”

Ours, too.