COLUMBUS — "Ohio consumers would pay $300 million through new fees in their electric bills to create a new pot of state money — more than half of which could go to bailout two nuclear power plants along Lake Erie.

At a Friday press conference, Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, detailed legislation he is pushing to eliminate surcharges electricity customers currently pay for energy efficiency, peak demand and renewable energy, which he says aren’t accomplishing goals.

...FirstEnergy Solutions and its allies have been looking for a bailout to keep open the plants, which generate about 18.3 million megawatts of zero carbon emission power each year.

Householder’s energy bill, which will be assigned to a committee next week, was immediately met with criticism from the Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund, Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation and Ohio Consumers Power Alliance as a consumer-funded bailout of aging nuclear power plants that does little to promote renewable energy from wind and solar.

'The entire intent of this bill is to bailout the two nuclear power plants,' said Tracy Sabetta, a consultant to Ohio Consumers Power Alliance. Under the legislation language, no existing solar farm in Ohio would qualify for grants under the new program, she said."

— Laura A. Bischoff, Dayton Daily News

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