Berea Manufacturing owner Mike Pandoli sits in his office on Wednesday, May 1, 2019. (Andrew J. Tobias, cleveland.com)

BEREA — "If passed, a controversial energy bill under debate by Ohio lawmakers could cause a small Cleveland-area welding shop’s electric bill — and possibly those of other businesses like it — to more than double.

Berea Manufacturing, which employs eight people in an industrial park not far from Baldwin Wallace University, under House Bill 6 could see its monthly electric bill go up from around $800 a month to around $1,800 a month, according to an analysis from experts contacted by cleveland.com.

...Because of how HB 6 is written, other similar small companies could be disproportionately impacted if they, like Berea Manufacturing:

• Are an industrial business with multiple electric meters, despite being just one company and
• Have relatively low electricity use

Here’s why.

HB 6, which lawmakers designed to bail out two financially troubled Ohio nuclear plants owned by FirstEnergy Solutions, a bankrupt former FirstEnergy subsidiary, would assess varying charges on each electric customer in the state to help subsidize “clean energy” generators. The new charges are expected to raise $150 million for the two nuclear plants, in Ottawa and Lake counties.

The bill would offset the new charges by eliminating existing charges that fund renewable energy and energy efficiency projects."

— Andrew Tobias, Cleveland.com

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