Ohio Legislature Passes FirstEnergy Bailout Bill, Gutting Clean Energy Standards and Costing Customers $150 Million Annually

(COLUMBUS, OH) The Ohio General Assembly today approved legislation known as HB 6 that bails out FirstEnergy Solutions’ two nuclear reactors (costing $150 million annually), subsidizes two Ohio Valley Electric Corp. coal plants (one of which is located in Indiana), and guts the state’s efficiency and renewable energy standards. Gov. Mike DeWine has suggested he will sign HB 6 into law.  

“With passage of the FirstEnergy bailout bill, Ohio will be known as the state that subsidizes old, dirty, and uneconomic technologies while gutting investments in clean energy innovation,” said Dick Munson, director of regulatory and legislative affairs for Environmental Defense Fund. “As Ohio faces more pollution and higher costs, other states are licking their chops at the chance to attract the economic development that Ohio has rejected.”

Today’s decision is one in a long saga of bailout attempts by FirstEnergy dating back to 2014, and comes just one month after the Ohio Supreme Court rejected state regulators’ 2016  decision to grant the utility a blank check of approximately $200 million annually for three years.