Speaker Householder big winner in court ruling on HB 6
AThomas Suddes
federal judge’s Wednesday ruling likely means Ohioans won’t get a chance to vote on House Bill 6, the Firstenergy Solutions subsidy bill. Result: HB 6 will force Ohio electricity customers to subsidize a couple of nuclear power plants and two coal-fueled power plants while — in many other states — legislators are talking up solar or wind power.
U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus Jr. decided that a bid by antihb 6 Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts to extend the deadline for submitting voter signatures for an HB 6 referendum didn’t belong in federal court. Sargus instead referred the case’s key questions to the Ohio Supreme Court.
Legally, it appears Sargus made the right call. Trouble is, Ohio’s Supreme Court is the best friend utilities have. Even when, rarely, the justices overturn a rate hike, they usually refuse to order customer refunds, thanks to a musty, pro-utility legal dogma. So, when a utility “loses” at the Supreme Court, the utility often can keep money it never should have collected in the first place. True, it’s possible the Supreme Court could give Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts more time to gather signatures. But that seems unlikely for Ohio’s don’trock-the-boat court.
With HB 6’s help, Firstenergy Solutions Corp. expects to emerge from bankruptcy and become independent of its birth parent, Akronbased Firstenergy Corp. (Firstenergy Corp.’s Ohio electric utilities are the Illuminating, Ohio Edison and Toledo Edison companies.)
The legislature passed HB 6 in July with just one vote to spare, and Republican Gov. Mike Dewine immediately signed it. The bill aims to shore up Solutions’ Ohio nuclear plants, Lake County’s Perry plant and
Ottawa County’s Davisbesse plant. Without ratepayer subsidies, the power the plants produce can’t compete in power markets.
HB 6 also will subsidize two coal-fueled plants owned by Ohio Valley Electric Corp. Ohio Valley is owned by group of utilities that includes American Electric Power, Dayton Power & Light, Duke Energy, Ohio Edison and Toledo Edison. Ludicrously, one of the coal plants HB 6 will make Ohioans subsidize is in Indiana.
Speculators shrewd enough to buy Solutions’ securities before the legislature passed HB 6 are among this caper’s winners. So are the unionized men and women who work at Solutions’ power plants and should now keep their jobs, which is why the Ohio AFLCIO supports HB 6.
But, in terms of Statehouse politics, the biggest winner — assuming no statewide vote on HB 6 — is House Speaker Larry Householder, a Republican from Perry County’s Glenford. Householder got HB 6 passed.
Like him or not, Householder gets things done that onlookers sometimes say are politically impossible. In January, just before Householder won the speakership away from a fellow Republican, thenspeaker Ryan Smith of Gallia County’s Bidwell, some of Ohio’s wisest Capitol Square bystanders said there was no way that Householder could unseat Smith.
But Householder did. And he not only won the speakership, but did that with votes from just 26 Ohio House Republicans — and 26 Ohio House Democrats, a classic cross-party deal. Meanwhile, Householder has kept his GOP caucus’s right-wing loyal, and busy, and enthused with pro-gun and antiabortion bills. Versions of the Solutions subsidy plan had floated around for a couple of years. Seemingly, no one could get a subsidy passed — until Householder did.
No coincidence, Householder is a student of another crafty Appalachia-born Republican, four-term Gov. James A. Rhodes. Householder’s now quietly tackling Ohio’s longest-standing policy mess, a school funding “system” ruled unconstitutional in 1997, a ruling the legislature has virtually ignored. If Householder, given his logrolling skills, can get legislators to overhaul school funding, he’d collect a bushel of IOUS.
Assuming Householder is reelected speaker in 2021 and 2023, he’d leave the House late in 2024 — in time for the lead-up to Ohio’s 2026 election. The last time an ex-house speaker became Ohio’s governor was in 1956, when voters elected Marietta Republican C. William O’neill. A hunch (and that’s all it is) suggests Householder might imagine himself becoming governor. After all, Rhodes, also a big-tent dealmaker, landed the job.
Householder has the time to plan his moves; he’ll turn 61 in June. And as HB 6 demonstrated, when Larry Householder plays, Larry Householder plays to win.
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. tsuddes@gmail.com