The Ohio legislature, which began its lame duck session Monday, held hearings on two of the four bills proposed to repeal the effects of a controversial nuclear bailout law at the center of a corruption scandal involving the state House’s former speaker.
There are four bills pending in the Ohio legislature that would roll back the scandal-wracked House Bill 6, which created subsidies for nuclear plants owned by former FirstEnergy subsidiary Energy Harbor. Three of the bills would fully repeal the law, while a fourth would kill rate increases for electricity buyers but leave other parts of the law intact.
The three bills aiming to fully repeal HB 6 — HB 738, HB 746 and SB 346 — won’t be passed in time to spare electricity ratepayers from a hike of $0.85 per month for the average household or around $2,400 for large industrial plants. Lawmakers held a second hearing for SB 346 and an informal hearing for HB 772 Tuesday.
HB 772, the partial repeal proposed by state Rep. Mark Romanchuk (R), includes an emergency clause to wipe out the rate increases before they hit ratepayers in January and would delete a controversial decoupling clause in the law. Utility rate experts have said the clause doesn’t actually qualify as decoupling — an energy policy that aims to remove incentives for companies to sell more energy — but rather serves as a mechanism to benefit the company financially.
Romanchuk’s bill would keep some provisions of HB6, like its elimination of renewable energy and efficiency standards.
“HB 6 was bad policy that had no benefit to Ohioans and was going to cost ratepayers billions,” Romanchuk said in his testimony. “HB 6 was simply a handout that was intended to bailout corporations that made bad business decisions.”
