Ohio Gov. DeWine signs bill to bail out nuclear plants, slash renewable energy

COLUMBUS - Ohio has become the next state to bail out its nuclear plants with fees on ratepayers' electric bills.

On Tuesday, Gov. Mike DeWine signed the controversial House Bill 6, which will add new fees to Ohioans' electric bills for two nuclear plants owned by the bankrupt FirstEnergy Solutions in northern Ohio.

Ohio lawmakers pitched the legislation as a cost-saver for ratepayers, saying they offset the new fee with cuts to incentives for renewable energy, such as wind and solar, and the elimination of fees used to push companies becoming more energy efficient in making and delivering energy by 2020.  

Lawmakers in the Ohio House of Representatives sent the bill to DeWine Tuesday afternoon with a narrow, 51-38 vote. The governor signed it shortly after. 

“Our goal all along has been to save the nuclear plants, save the jobs but also to keep the cost of energy down for the ratepayer," DeWine told reporters Thursday. “I think House Bill 6 does that.”

The bill passed less than a week after House Speaker Larry Householder said he didn't have enough support present to pass the legislation. On Monday, House leadership even asked to borrow a state-owned plane to fly lawmakers back from a Chicago conference for the vote. That plan was later ditched, according to a Dayton Daily News report.

Here's what it would do: Starting Jan. 1, 2021, a fee would be tacked onto Ohioans' electric bills of 85 cents a month for residential customers. That would raise about $150 million a year for two nuclear plants outside Toledo and Cleveland owned by FirstEnergy Solutions, which has filed for bankruptcy. Without help from state lawmakers, the plants are slated to close by 2021.

"This is all about the folks that are going to finance those nuclear plants and the message that we are sending to those people: we want to be a partner with them to keep those plants in the state of Ohio and benefiting the ratepayers of the state of Ohio," Householder told reporters after the vote. "And that is why it’s needed in an expeditious manner."

That new fee would also generate $20 million for solar energy. Just six solar business locations will be eligible for the money, including two in Southwest Ohio's Brown County. That fee would continue until the end of 2027.

Another change would guarantees that utilities can charge customers up to $1.50 a month for two coal plants operated by Piketon-based Ohio Valley Electric Corporation until 2030. The plants are located in Gallipolis and Madison, Indiana. That fee is already on most customers' bills right now.  

To pay for those new or recurring fees, Ohio lawmakers slashed renewable energy requirements – eliminating them after the end of 2026 and lowering the percentage of energy that must come from those sources before then – and effectively ended energy efficiency mandates after 2020. 

That frustrated some lawmakers.

"We cannot save one group of jobs on the backs of another," said Rep. Sedrick Denson, D-Bond Hill. 

Still others emphasized the millions that Ohio customers would save from the changes.

“It cannot bare overemphasis enough that this is a bailout for the ratepayers," said Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Green Township. "So who benefits from this bill? Ratepayers."

In the end, 15 Republicans lawmakers, including Middletown Rep. Candice Keller, voted against the energy changes and nine Democrats, including Mount Auburn Rep. Cathy Ingram, voted for the bill. 

Opponents to the bill include the state's ratepayer advocate, the Ohio Consumers Counsel, environmental groups and the Ohio Manufacturers' Association. They say efforts to make homes and businesses more energy-efficient were saving customers money. 

The vote comes after months of advertisements flooding Ohioans' airwaves. Dark money groups with ties to FirstEnergy or Householder, spent millions on advertisements supporting the legislation. Opponents, such as the oil and gas industry trade group American Petroleum Institute, launched ads attacking the proposal.

Ohio is one of a handful of states to pass ratepayer-funded assistance for nuclear plants, but it is the first to do so while cutting renewable energy and energy efficiency standards at the same time.      

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