Nuclear bailout bill approved by Senate
The owner of the state’s two nuclear power plants moved another step closer Wednesday night to collecting a nearly $1 billion bailout that it says it needs to keep the plants operating.
The Ohio Senate approved by a 19-12 vote its version of House Bill 6 and returned it to the House to see whether representatives will agree with the substantial changes that senators made to the bill the House passed in May.
The House adjourned Wednesday night without considering the revised legislation and is expected to take up the matter again Aug. 1. If the representatives don’t approve the senators’ revisions, a conference committee made up of members from the two chambers will be tasked with working out differences in the bill.
Under the bill, consumers would pay an 85-centsa-month fee on their electricity bill with 90% of that — about $150 million a year — going to Firstenergy Solutions, owner of the Davis-besse and Perry
nuclear plants in northern Ohio. The rest of the money, about $20 million a year, would support solar projects being developed in the state.
Firstenergy Solutions’ finances would be subject to an annual review to determine whether the fee could be lowered or eliminated. Either way, the fee would expire in 2027. In a lastminute amendment, the Senate delayed until 2021 when the fee would be imposed.
The company, spun off from Akron-based Firstenergy and operating under bankruptcy protection, has said it will shut down the plants unless it gets help this summer. Backers of the legislation have sold the bill as a clean-energy plan because it would shore up the state’s main source of carbon dioxide-free electricity.
The plants have about 1,400 jobs between them, and are considered key drivers of their local economies.
“The winner in this legislation is the ratepayer,” said Sen. Steve Wilson, R-maineville, who shepherded the bill through the Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee. “The bill we have today is in the best interest in all Ohioans.”
Not only would it save jobs, it would result in low electricity rates for consumers, he said.
Other senators, though, complained that the state shouldn’t be in the business of bailing out companies.
In addition to the nuclear plants, the bill would put into law subsidies already being collected to support two old, coal-fired power plants, one in Ohio and one in Indiana. Consumers would pay up to $1.50 a month to support the plants, owned by a group of utilities, including American Electric Power.
Opponents objected to the fact that the bill would require utilities to get 8.5% of their power from a renewable source by 2026 and then drops the demand. The bill guts energy efficiency programs as well.
“I’m concerned that we’re turning back the hands of time and turning our backs on the problems of clean air and putting more emphasis on profit rather than the safety of our children for the future,” said state Sen. Cecil Thomas, D-cincinnati.
Ohio isn’t alone in bailing out nuclear plants. Bailouts enacted in New York, Illinois, New Jersey and Connecticut, and now Ohio, over the past three years will cost ratepayers in those states more than $15 billion, according to an analysis by the Environmental Working Group.
House Bill 6 has been the subject of an intense lobbying campaign, including a multimillion-dollar statewide television, radio and mail campaign. Local public officials and a cadre of industry lobbyists are pushing for the bill along with a variety of trade unions.
Environmentalists, some business groups, and oil and gas interests have been fighting the legislation, and House Democrats have rolled out their own clean energy bill with the goal of having half of the state’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2050.
Proponents say the legislation would actually save the average consumer $2.82 a month by eliminating and reducing fees they pay for renewable energy and energy-efficiency programs.
A Senate committee defeated an amendment that would have reinstated a provision allowing townships to conduct referendums on wind projects planned for their area. Residents have complained in the House and Senate that they don’t have enough say over the projects.