Lawmakers pass energy bill ending Ohio ratepayer charges that subsidize two unprofitable coal plants

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — After years of attempts, Ohio lawmakers voted Wednesday to end the subsidy for two unprofitable Cold War-era coal plants that had cost Ohio ratepayers nearly $400,000 a day, after they were tucked into the tainted energy bill at the center of the largest corruption scandal in state history.

House Bill 15 would put an immediate end to the “legacy generation rider” for the two Ohio Valley Electric Corp. plants contained in House Bill 6, which dates back to 2019. The provision was part of a larger overhaul intended to modernize Ohio energy policy.

The Ohio Senate passed its version of the legislation in a rare unanimous vote Wednesday, before sending it back to the Ohio House. The lower chamber approved Senate changes to the House version 94-2.

The bill goes next to Gov. Mike DeWine, whose office said he is reviewing the amended measure.

State Rep. Casey Weinstein, a Hudson Democrat, praised the measure's passage, calling the end of the “bailout” of the two coal two plants — one in southern Ohio, one in Madison, Indiana, southwest of Cincinnati — a huge win for consumers.

“It was an outrageous misuse of public funds — sending hundreds of thousands of dollars a day to an aging coal plant in Indiana," he said in a statement. "Putting an end to that is a victory for ratepayers across the state.”

The bill also requires utilities to routinely come in for rate cases and justify how they spend ratepayer-collected money; creates a permissive school energy efficiency loan program to reduce energy costs for public schools; and codifies that consumers must receive refunds for improper charges.

Ohio Manufacturing Association President Ryan Augsburger said repealing the uneconomical subsidies and other charges and creating energy “heat maps” that visually depict energy usage patterns will allow manufacturers to operate more efficiently.

“Ohio has an abundance of natural resources, a strong workforce, world-class educational institutions and now the foundation for a nationally leading energy industry,” he said in a statement. "Now is the time for Ohio’s energy system to pull ahead and attract new generation, bringing with it new economic investments.”

The OVEC subsidy was a late addition to the measure passed Wednesday, which initially focused on a $1 billion bailout for two nuclear power plants owned by a then-subsidiary of Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. It was to have been collected through Ohioans' electric bills through 2030.

The Legislature repealed the nuclear plant subsidy contained in the bill in 2021, months after then-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four others were indicted for their roles in a $60 million bribery scheme secretly funded by FirstEnergy to win passage of the bailout bill.

But the coal plant subsidy has been tougher to eliminate.

The two plants were built in the 1950s to provide power to a uranium enrichment facility in Pike County, but the contract with the U.S. Department of Energy ended in 2003 and OVEC began selling power to the regional power grid. The rise of cheaper and abundant natural gas helped make the plants unprofitable.

The state’s utility watchdog at one point said the coal plant subsidy was worse than the one for the nuclear plants, because it helped sustain plants whose electricity wasn't needed and that pollute the air.