Lawmakers quiet as Ohioans continue to pay coal bailouts
Evidently distracted by magnetic vaccines, the Ohio General Assembly seems to have forgotten House Bill 6, the supposedly “repealed” rip-off of Ohio electricity customers.
But House Bill 6 hasn’t forgotten those customers.
No sir.
So far, Ohioans have paid stockholder-owned electric companies a combined $143.3 million in extra charges beginning in January 2020.
Why? To bail out two coal-burning (actually, cash-burning) power plants, one (Kyger Creek) in Gallia County, one (Clifty Creek) in Indiana. The Ohio electric companies, with some out-of-state utilities, are saddled with the two plants.
But the companies have made some wise decisions, such counting on the General Assembly to slip the coal plant bailout into HB 6. The uproar over nuclear subsidies, accented by the federal corruption probe, forced the Legislature to derail the gravy train that had been headed toward the Perry and Davis-besse nuclear plants once owned by Akronbased Firstenergy Corp.
But the coal plant subsidies, quietly inserted into HB 6 to keep other Ohio electric utilities from fighting HB 6’s nuclear bailout, remain a part of your monthly electric bill.
That’s a fact that state legislators and Ohio’s electric companies hope you will forget. They likely also would prefer that you forget that the two plants have since January 2020 pumped an estimated 17 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air, a fact that is literally, as well as politically, breathtaking.
But hey, when you have quack COVID-19 cures to fret over, ripped-off Ohio utility consumers have to wait.
Now pending in a Statehouse committee is bipartisan Senate Bill 117, sponsored by Sen. Mark Romanchuk, an Ontario Republican, and Hearcel Craig, a Columbus Democrat. The Romanchukcraig bill would repeal the coal plant subsidies.
The Statehouse’s Powers That Be are likely hoping ratepayers have forgotten all about the coal plant subsidies. After all, next to a generous lobbyist, amnesia is an Ohio politician’s best friend. Still, consumer and business lobbies want House Bill 6 – all of it – gone.
One possible compromise: Repealing the coal subsidies, but allowing the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to reinstate part or all of the subsidies if the panel thinks that’s fair.
Yes, agreed, that’s the PUCO appointed by Gov. Mike Dewine. Still, with the governor seeking reelection next year, the pro-utility commission just might … rethink … its priorities.
Yeah, but what about ... ?
No sooner does a Republican draw fire than some readers gripe because, hey, don’t Ohio Democrats ever mess up? They sure do.
But the complainers overlook one stark fact: Your neighbor’s pet cat might sometimes have more
to say about what happens at the Statehouse than Democrats do.
Beginning in 1983, Democrats have held the governorship for 12 years, Republicans for 26 (including the last 10). Meanwhile, Republicans have run the state Supreme Court since 1987, the state Senate since 1985, and the Ohio House since 1995 (except for 2009 and 2010).
There was certainly a liberal agenda during Democratic Gov. Richard F. Celeste’s administration, but it ended in January 1991 – 30 years ago. And until he retired in 1994, Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum, a Greater Cleveland Democrat, was a committed liberal.
A couple of other things happened in 1994 that helped spearhead Democrats’ downward spiral in state politics: 20year Democratic House Speaker Vern Riffe stepped down, and Tuscarawas County Democrat Rob Burch, 1994’s
Democratic nominee for governor, drew a disastrous 25% of the statewide vote, handing GOP Gov. George V. Voinovich a second term.
Then, the 2007-to-2010 governorship of Democrat Ted Strickland seemed adrift; the same seemed true of the 2009-10 speakership of Greater Cleveland Democrat Armond Budish.
For federal offices, in contrast, Ohioans twice cast the state’s electoral votes for Democrat Bill Clinton and twice for Democrat Barack Obama; sent Democrat John Glenn to the Senate four times; and have sent Democrat Sherrod Brown to the Senate three times. But none of those Democrats runs a thing at Statehouse – and neither do Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer.
Republicans skipper the Statehouse. And when it veers off course or runs aground, bystanders aren’t called to account. The captain and his officers are.
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University.
tsuddes@gmail.com