COLUMBUS — Hopes of repealing an energy bailout law are in danger at the Ohio Statehouse as Republican lawmakers argue different positions on how and whether to repeal the legislation with only weeks before Ohioans begin to pay.
In one corner stands veteran GOP lawmakers like Rep. Bill Seitz, ranking member of the majority party, who believes the Nov. 3 election results solidified the bailout bill even if federal investigators found its passage process to be corrupt.
“There is no representative and no senator who voted yes on House Bill 6, who lost their re-election bid,” Mr. Seitz said. “But many, several, at least, who voted no, lost. So what does that tell you?”
He vowed to vote against any repeal bill brought to the House for a floor vote during the next four weeks of the lame duck session.
In the other corner are Republican Reps. Laura Lanese and Mark Romanchuk. Both lawmakers introduced a bill during the summer to repeal the law at the center of a $60 million bribery probe.
Ms. Lanese, also a ranking member in the House, pushed back on her colleague’s sentiment about the election proving not to be a referendum on what the FBI called the largest bribery scheme in state history.
She said her efforts to repeal the bill helped her win re-election this month.
The Grove City Republican introduced the first repeal bill on July 23, two days after the arrest of then-House Speaker Larry Householder and four of his accomplices on charges of racketeering for their roles in the alleged scheme to bail out two nuclear power plants.
The five men are accused of shepherding $60 million in energy company money for personal and political use in exchange for passing a legislative bailout of the plants and then derailing an attempt to place a rejection of the bailout on the ballot.
Mr. Householder, also a Republican, was one of the driving forces behind the nuclear plants’ financial rescue, which added a new fee to every electricity bill in the state and directed over $150 million a year through 2026 to the plants near Cleveland and near Toledo.
The lawmaker and two of the others have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In the days following the affidavit’s release, lawmakers acted swiftly, introducing a number of repeal bills.
But months later, as the General Assembly is winding down in a lame duck session, the tainted legislation remains intact, with weeks left before the law will add a fee to every electricity bill in the state on Jan. 1.
First Published November 29, 2020, 4:50 a.m.
