The Ohio Attorney General’s office is seeking an injunction against FirstEnergy Corp. and Energy Harbor from being guaranteed an income of $102 million annually — a guarantee stashed away in the fine print of the scandal-plagued nuclear bailout legislation, Ohio House Bill 6.
Signed into law in 2020, House Bill 6 provides a $150 million annual financial bailout to the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station and the Perry Nuclear Power Plant, owned by former FirstEnergy subsidiary Energy Harbor. The relief would begin this year and be paid with an $0.85 monthly increase in the electric bill for each Ohio residential utility customer, regardless of whether that home is a FirstEnergy customer.
Without the bailout, Energy Harbor planned to close the plants this May and in May 2021. FirstEnergy Solutions declared bankruptcy in 2018 and became the standalone Energy Harbor after the reorganization.
“House Bill 6 contained something even more costly to customers than the nuclear bailout. It also enacted a perverse form of decoupling uniquely designed to allow FirstEnergy to overcharge its customers,” said the Ohio attorney general’s injunction request filed Jan. 13 in Franklin County Superior Court. “On Dec. 30, 2020, the [Public Utilities Commission of Ohio] approved a rider under this new law that surcharges FirstEnergy customers $102 million in 2021 for the sole purpose of padding FirstEnergy’s bottom-line.”
FirstEnergy declined to comment, citing company policy not to discuss ongoing litigation.
