Politicians address ongoing energy issue, bribery scandal with conflicting plans

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Making reforms following the state’s biggest bribery scandal has been a slow path forward, but Ohio lawmakers are working to close that chapter and move forward with new energy legislation.

“It’s a balancing act when you look at moving forward with trying to decarbonize and how we achieve that, while at the same time having the power we need to keep the lights on and expand,” Chair of the Ohio House Public Utilities Committee Rep. Dick Stein (R-Norwalk) said.

It is estimated that by 2027, reserve energy with Ohio’s energy transmitter, PJM, will be gone, meaning during peak demand times Ohioans may not see the lights go on when they flip the switch. It takes four to eight years to build up a reserve margin.

“So, if you’re going to have no reserve margin in three years and it takes you four to eight years to build any new generation capable of supplying meaningful loads. Like they said in the movie, ‘Houston, we’ve got a problem,’” Ohio House Majority Floor Leader Rep. Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) said.

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There have been debates within the statehouse about what type of energy Ohio needs in order to move forward but most efforts have either stalled or have only made it through one chamber.

“This is life threatening stuff,” Ranking member of the Ohio House Public Utilities Committee Rep. Casey Weinstein (R-Hudson) said. “(We need) to diversify it rapidly, create more energy, get it on the grid faster to improve reliability and reduce outages for Ohioans.”

“At some point we have to figure out how to get more generation on the grid in order to be able to assure that we have the reliability that everybody is just coming to take for granted,” Stein said.

Wind and solar are one example of a debate within the statehouse to move Ohio’s energy forward.

“We’re being shut out of that while we’re doubling down on coal and natural gas that is failing us from an economic and a reliability perspective argument,” Weinstein said. “When it’s nighttime, maybe we get a wind last night, then you can tap that storage and that’s what western states are doing to reduce their outages and to reduce costs and to increase reliability.”

But Stein said he does not think it is not enough to rely on that energy alone.

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“We can certainly use more wind and solar across the PJM region. The reality is, in order for the reliability we need, we need thermal generators,” Stein said.

There are some bi-partisan efforts, like an energy efficiency bill that was stalled for more than a year and now sits in the Senate.

“We got that through the house, albeit unfortunately narrowly. And that is going to go over to the Senate,” Rep. Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) said. “We’ve been assured by President Huffman that it will receive attention in the waning days of our session.”

There is also a bill to support natural gas, which passed the House on party lines. So, with this urgency, why has nothing made it to the finish line yet? It depends on who you ask.

“The holdup is within our state. Power siting has become so difficult and bureaucratic here,” Weinstein said. “It’s preventing steel from getting in the ground around rooftops to provide for homegrown energy that’s on private landowners’ lands or that’s on people’s roofs that that reduces their dependance on the grid.”

“Number one, it’s complicated. And there aren’t many people that have spent the time and to understand the complicated dynamics of this whole industry.” Seitz said. “Number two, there’s been an awful lot of fear over doing anything that looks like we’re trying to help the utilities because of the concern over what happened with FirstEnergy.”

There has been an effort to repeal the remaining portions of House Bill 6 but that has not had a single hearing since being introduced in March 2023.

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“We need to repeal the rest of HB6. I’ve been a broken record on this,” Weinstein said. “Stop charging Ohioans $500,000 a day for legacy energy sources and bring on new energy that costs less that increases reliability and reduces inflation for Ohioans.”

Members like Seitz and Stein stand by the policy in HB6. Stein agreed that “the methods used to promote and move HB6 forward were horrendous,” but points to instances like Winter Storm Elliot in 2022 to express why the policy is important.

“What would that have done without the OVEC subsidies that kept two coal fired plants producing another 2400 megawatts of power?” Stein said. “I’ve talked to many authorities that have said had those power plants been offline, we would have had rolling blackouts.”

As far as the latest in the House Bill 6 scandal, FirstEnergy will not face state criminal charges for its role in the scandal in exchange for $19.5 million dollars. The agreement also requires the company to provide evidence, access to witness and testimony in the ongoing criminal cases ongoing criminal cases against Chuck Jones and Michael Dowling.

“FirstEnergy today is not the company it was five years ago – the corporation has undertaken, and continues to undergo, reforms to strengthen its internal ethics programs, to increase transparency, and promote reporting of questionable conduct by its employees and leadership,” Steve Irwin. spokesperson for the Ohio Attorney General, said. “It has also restructured its board and leadership to remove the individuals responsible for the conduct that gave rise to the House Bill 6 scandal. This is an important step in bringing the disgraced corporate leaders who used their positions of power to betray FirstEnergy’s ratepayers and employees and the people of Ohio to account for their crimes.”

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