Senate Bill 44: Nuclear subsidies repealed in bill

A bill that would that repeal subsidies for nuclear power plants goes before the Public Utilities Committee of the Ohio House of Representatives after passing unanimously in the Senate.
Senate Bill 44 repeals nearly $1 billion in subsidies that would have gone to two nuclear plants owned by a former subsidiary of FirstEnergy Solutions. The bill would also eliminate the fees on customers’ electric bills that would pay for the subsidies. Those fees are the subject of two pending court cases and are currently on hold.
The nuclear subsidies are a central component of House Bill 6, passed in 2019, that has become the focus of a federal investigation. Authorities contend about $60 million in bribes passed from FirstEnergy affiliates to Larry Householder, former House Speaker, and political affiliates to get HB 6 passed.
HB 6 would create a Nuclear Generation Fund that provides $150 million per year to the Perry and Davis-Besse nuclear plants owned now by Energy Harbor, the former FirstEnergy Solutions that emerged from bankruptcy as a new independent entity. Those funds were to be disbursed from 2021 through January 2028 as payments for each megawatt-hour of generation. The bill also provides funding of $20 million per year to several previously permitted utility-scale solar projects
Backers of SB 44 note there is another benefit to repealing HB 6 with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voting in December to raise the bids of some electric generators selling power into the wholesale capacity market.
The 3-member FERC board of commissioners voted to subject power generators that receive subsidies to a Minimum Offer Price Rule that raises the price floor for suppliers selling into the wholesale market.
Critics of the FERC move, including those who support renewable energy, raise concerns the MOPR will create hurdles to incentives for bringing new zero emission systems online.
The impact HB 6 has on the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard is especially worrisome to environmental activists because it reduced the RPS, adopted in 2008, requiring electricity suppliers to procure clean energy.
Prior to the enactment of HB 6, the RPS benchmarks for each supplier rose to 12.5 percent by 2026, including a solar energy procurement of 0.5 percent. HB 6 capped the RPS benchmark at 8.5 percent by 2026 with no solar portion requirement after 2019.
Last month, Senator Matt Dolan, R- Chagrin Falls, introduced SB 89 that would make the 8.5 percent standard permanent.
He said the bill represents a compromise needed by the passage of HB 6 because an 8.5 percent standard would not be affected by the FERC Minimum Offer Price ruling.
“By making the renewable portfolio standards permanent, we are signaling to investors that Ohio is prepared for tomorrow’s economy,” he said.
Several other bills that would repeal all or parts of HB 6 are already pending in the House.