Ohio Nuclear Bailout Bill Expands to Now Also Bail Out Eisenhower Era Uneconomic Coal Plants - Moves out of Committee

Ohio Clean Air Program” anything but clean

Columbus, OH-- Earlier today, state legislators passed House Bill 6 out of the Ohio House Energy and Natural Resources Committee. HB6 repeals Ohio’s clean energy and efficiency standards while creating a new energy tax on all Ohio electric customers to bail out FirstEnergy Solutions Ohio nuclear power plants. The bill was amended to also bail out the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation’s (OVEC) two Eisenhower coal plants - only one of which is actually in Ohio - Kyger Creek in Ohio and Clifty Creek in Indiana.  

In Response, Neil Waggoner, Campaign Representative for Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign in Ohio released the following statement:

“There is nothing ‘clean’ about HB6; nothing clean in how Chairman Vitale handled hearings, nothing clean in how dark money groups and FirstEnergy continue to try to swindle the public with misleading ads, and nothing clean in the end result if it becomes law and bails out old dirty plants.

“HB6 is a new energy tax that funnels hundreds of millions of customer dollars to dirty uneconomic plants that have been paid for by Ohioans multiple times over already. It’s bad for business. It’s bad for the environment. It’s bad for the health of Ohioans.

“Perhaps if supporters of the bill had spent less time watching deliberately dishonest TV ads, and more time listening to the overwhelming number of opponents that testified against the bill - a wide array of individuals and groups with consumer, business, energy, and environmental concerns - we’d be debating a real energy policy instead exchanging statements on this bailout farce.”