Controversial House Bill 6 Signed; Bails Out Ohio Nuclear Plants

Controversial legislation bailing out two Ohio nuclear plants was signed into law by Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday. Part of the cost of the bailouts was offset by slashing incentives for renewable energy.

House Bill 6 requires an 85 cent fee to be tacked onto residential electric bills. That additional fee will be used to raise $150 million for nuclear plants outside Cleveland and Toledo, both owned by the bankrupt FirstEnergy Solutions.

To help offset the new residential fee, lawmakers cut certain renewable energy requirements and lowered the percentage of energy that has to come from renewable sources. The legislation effectively ends energy efficiency mandates after 2020, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

“Our goal all along has been to save the nuclear plants, save the jobs but also to keep the cost of energy down for the ratepayer," DeWine said, according to the Enquirer. “I think House Bill 6 does that.”

However, Democratic lawmakers, activist groups, and environmental rights groups all lambasted the decision to push House Bill 6 through. According to Ohio Citizens Action, more than 3,500 people called lawmakers to oppose the legislation, and more than 8,000 Ohioans wrote letters urging congresspeople to fix portions of the law.

"HB 6 is a step back from what we have currently in statute for the clean energy standards. This is not a comprehensive energy bill. Instead, this bill compromises successful policies that have supported renewable energy and energy efficiency to provide a legislative vehicle for a nuclear and coal bailout," said Bill Stanley, state director for The Nature Conservancy in Ohio.

Democrats argued that Republican lawmakers were helping one industry, and its workers, at the expense of another. State Representative Stephanie Howse, a Democrat from Cleveland, noted that 112,000 people work in renewable energy in Ohio. Ohio has the eighth largest renewable energy workforce in the nation.

“Ohio consumers should have utility services that are adequate, reliable, safe, reasonably priced and offer transparency and fairness — The passage of HB 6 now shifts the financial burden to operate nuclear power plant facilities from the shareholders of First Energy Solutions to Ohio taxpayers,” said Howse in a statement.

FirstEnergy said it employs about 1,600 people at its two nuclear plants in Lake and Ottawa counties, making the plants two of the largest employers in their respective regions. Without bailout money, the plants would likely close by 2021.