COLUMBUS — On May 1, 2008, then-Gov. Ted Strickland signed into law a measure designed to push coal-dependent Ohio toward solar, wind, and other renewable sources of electricity.
The bill passed with a single negative vote at a time when Republicans controlled both the House and Senate and a Democrat sat in the governor’s office.
“We tried to have a comprehensive bill to position Ohio to be a major producer of energy, especially renewable energy,” Mr. Strickland told The Blade. “At the time we passed our standards, we had one of the strongest in the country for a state like ours.”
Republicans at the time insisted on going even further. For them, it wasn’t enough to simply say utilities had to acquire 12.5 percent of the power they sell from renewable sources by 2025. The utilities would have to meet specific benchmarks each year to demonstrate their progress.
Today Mr. Strickland is watching as legislators prepare to scuttle the renewable mandate along with another that requires utilities to reduce electricity consumption overall.
“This issue shows the power of unbridled special-interest influence over what’s best for the citizens of this state,” the former governor said. “It’s just an appalling example of how might makes right and to hell with what’s best for the people.”
Last month, the House voted 53-43 across party lines for House Bill 6 to create a consumer-funded, $198 million-a-year pot. The money would primarily benefit FirstEnergy Solutions’ two nuclear power plants for the power they produce without emitting carbon dioxide into the air.
The owner of the nuclear plants is a spin-off from Akron-based FirstEnergy, which strongly opposed the original 2008 law and, in its wake, doubled-down on nuclear and coal-fired power plants. Today FES is in bankruptcy proceedings as those plants have struggled to compete with cheap natural gas.
FES has told lawmakers that, absent consumer subsidies, the Davis-Besse plant in Oak Harbor and the Perry plant east of Cleveland will be permanently decommissioned.
The company wants an answer before lawmakers recess for the summer by June 30 because it must decide whether to order fuel for Davis-Besse or proceed with its planned closing by May 31, 2020. Perry would follow in 2021. Together the plants support about 4,300 direct and indirect jobs.
“FirstEnergy made bad decisions during those [2008] negotiations,” Mr. Strickland said. “They were very obstructionist, opposed us, and made bad decisions that led them to declare bankruptcy.”
In recognition of a growing solar industry in northwest Ohio at the time, the original 2008 law required at least half a percentage point of the 12.5 percent total mandate for renewable power to come from solar.
While the bill now in the Senate would eliminate that solar carve-out along with the broader renewable mandate, solar would remain the only player other than nuclear when it comes to receiving zero-emissions credits of $9 per megawatt hour of power.
A last-minute House amendment would allow five major, utility-scale solar fields already approved by the Ohio Power Siting Board to also seek credits.
Rep. Bill Seitz (R., Cincinnati) voted for the bill at the time but has since become an ardent critic of the renewable mandates. This comes as even he boasts that he took advantage of a federal tax credit to install solar panels on his home.
“I did that a few years ago just to show everybody that I am not opposed to green power,” he said recently when House Bill 6 passed. “I jump for joy every time I get my Duke Energy bill, and my bill last month for the electric part was $8.91.
“Uncle Sam, courtesy of the Obama administration, gave me a $5,000 tax credit that year for putting in my solar panels,” he said. “So I like solar. I’m not against the sun. The trouble is it doesn’t shine all the time, particularly not here in Ohio.”
He, like many of his fellow Republicans, have argued that consumer bills are only going to climb as the final year of the mandates nears.
“The cost of compliance goes up the closest we get to the summit,” he said. “In about a year and a half, the energy efficiency mandate will double from 1 percent a year reduction in energy usage to 2 percent a year. A lot of the easy stuff has been done. The hard stuff remains.”
He and other supporters of the bill say the $1 monthly surcharge that a residential consumer would pay to fuel the new zero-emissions fund would be less than what they pay now in costs related to the renewable and efficiency standards.
The Legislative Service Commission has estimated a Toledo Edison residential customer pays $7.90 a month compared with a statewide average of $4.39.
“I’m trying to be practical,” Mr. Strickland said. “I’d like to see those [nuclear] jobs protected. I’d like to see nuclear energy at least through a transition period as we move toward total renewable resources. ... Why do they have to do this as a vehicle with renewable standards and make Ohio a Neanderthal among the states?”
First Published June 9, 2019, 12:00 p.m.
