A third hearing will be held Tuesday on Ohio House Rep. Jim Hoops’ (R) bill to delay subsidies granted in the controversial nuclear bailout law passed in 2019 to help keep two of the state’s nuclear plants financially solvent.
House Bill 798 will delay payments to the plant for at least one year while former FirstEnergy Corp. subsidiary Energy Harbor undergoes a third-party audit to determine whether the subsidies outlined in House Bill 6 (HB6) are needed.
If nothing is passed before the Ohio session closes at the end of the month, Ohio ratepayers will see charges of $0.85 or more on their utility bills beginning in January. The legislature failed to pass a repeal bill through the typical lawmaking process this fall, which requires laws to be passed 50 days before their implementation. Hoops’ bill has “emergency” status, which means that if passed, it could be implemented immediately.
In order to pass a piece of emergency legislation, 2/3 of both chambers of the Ohio legislature will need to vote in favor of it.
HB 6 was passed with the help of former House Speaker Larry Householder, who was indicted in July for criminal racketeering in association with the passage of the bill. Prosecutors called the effort one of the biggest corruption scandals in state history. It has resulted in the firing of a handful of FirstEnergy executives, including the company’s CEO; the resignation of the head of Ohio’s public utilities regulator, a lawsuit from the state’s attorney general and a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into FirstEnergy.
Amendments could be added to the legislation during the hearing with the Select Committee on Energy Policy and Oversight, scheduled to be held at 2 p.m. or after session on Tuesday. The hearing can be accessed on the Ohio Channel, a public broadcasting website for state government coverage.
Hoops is the chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Policy and Oversight, which was appointed to review bills seeking to repeal HB6. He says it’s important to try to keep the nuclear plants alive, as they account for much of the state’s carbon-free energy and provide jobs to surrounding communities.
Others, like House Rep. David Leland (D), say the law simply “kicks the can” further down the road, demanding the scandal-ridden bill be repealed entirely.
Editor’s note, 12/15/2020, 4:13 p.m. Eastern. The story was updated with the correct name for the former FirstEnergy subsidiary.
