By John Stang
FirstEnergy Solutions will keep its two Ohio reactors open after the state this week approved a $150 million annual boost to the financially struggling company.
After months of debate and revisions to the bill in the Ohio Legislature, it was sent to Gov. Mike DeWine (R) for a quick signature on Tuesday.
The Akron-based power provider announced Wednesday afternoon it would halt preparations for deactivating the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Oak Harbor and the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Perry. Without the support from a statewide utility rate hike from 2021 to 2027, FES had planned to retire the reactors, respectively, by May 2020 and May 2021 because it did not have the money to operate them economically.
The corporation needed the state bailout money approved this month before it arranged to buy $52 million in nuclear fuel for refueling Davis-Besse next spring. That process will go ahead, FES said.
“We are very pleased that Governor Mike DeWine signed HB6 following its successful bipartisan passage in the General Assembly,” said FirstEnergy Solutions CEO John Judge in a press release. “We’re also thankful for the support and commitment by Speaker Householder and Senate President Obhof who understood the importance of protecting 90 percent of the state’s zero- emissions electricity, substantial employment and the need to provide affordable rates from a diverse portfolio of generation sources for Ohioans.”
The Ohio House of Representatives voted 51-38 Tuesday to approve its bill following recent modifications by the state Senate. DeWine then quickly signed the measure into law.
The bill translates to an $0.85 monthly increase in the electric bill for each Ohio residential utility customer, along with higher levels for business and industrial ratepayers. However, it also dramatically cuts fees going to energy conservation and renewable energy programs, meaning those programs will be significantly slashed, according to the Columbus Dispatch.
Along with the money for the nuclear plants, another $20 million would be directed each year to six solar projects — resulting in ratepayers proving a total of $170 million a year.
While all Ohio residents will pay the monthly rate hike that goes to FirstEnergy Solutions, the Akron-based corporation supplies 15 percent of the state’s electricity, according to the newspaper.
“This is something that needed to be done, and the legislature rose up and took care of business,” House Speaker Larry Householder (R) told the Dispatch. Trish Demeter, chief of staff for the Ohio Environmental Council, told the newspaper: “House Bill 6 is still a very bad bill that puts Ohio on the wrong track,”
The natural gas industry, a new group called Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts, and an Ohio utilities watchdog group Clean Energy Future are considering trying to overturn the legislation next year with a statewide referendum.
Four utilities that benefited from the bailout bill donated at least $320,000 to the campaign war chests of state lawmakers who backed the legislation, according to the Energy and Policy Institute, a watchdog organization that advocates for renewable energy. That included $188,000 from FES. The rest came from American Electric Power, Dayton Power & Light, and Duke Energy — all which have coal-fired power plants helped by the bill, according to the institute.
The two reactors of FES’ Beaver Valley Power Station in Shippingport, Pa., are still on schedule to close by May 2021 and October 2021. The Pennsylvania legislature was unable to get a financial package for FES beyond the committee stage in legislative session that ended a few months ago.
The company’s appeals for help from the federal government have gone nowhere in the past 15 months.
FirstEnergy Solutions and several corporate siblings filed for federal bankruptcy protection on March 31, 2018 — days after the company announced that its four power reactors in Ohio and Pennsylvania — plus its coal-fired power plants elsewhere — would be shut down because they cannot economically compete with power generated by natural gas.
