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The Ohio General Assembly has left
Columbus for the summer, leaving the good, the bad and the ugly in
their wake. Our work is clearly not done, and you have some calls to
make, Friend! See ideas for action below. We need your
voice!
House Bill 6 was introduced in
April 2019 by Reps. Jamie Callender (R- 61) and Shane Wilkin (R- 91).
Signed into law in July 2019, HB6 gave a $1.3 billion
rate-payer funded bailout to FirstEnergy’s two failing
nuclear plants and two old, polluting OVEC coal plants. The law also
slashed Ohio’s renewable energy and energy efficiency
standards.
Ohio Citizen Action worked with
partners to put a statewide referendum overturning House Bill
6 put on the November 2019 ballot, an effort that failed after
one of the nastiest campaigns we’ve ever seen. A pair of dark money groups, Ohioans for
Energy Security and the now-admitted guilty Generation Now, spent at least $25
million on TV ads and
mailers attacking the referendum effort.
Then in July 2020, Rep. Larry Householder
(R- 72) and others were arrested by the FBI in connection with the $60 million bribery
scheme surrounding HB 6. Ohio Citizen Action called for the full and
immediate repeal of HB6 and the removal of Larry Householder from the
legislature. By late March 2021, the pressure from OCA members and
coalition partners led to Ohio lawmakers
repealing the rate-payer funded nuclear bailout portion of the law, via HB 128.
Consumers can look forward to the
$27.5 million
decoupling refund provided
by HB 128 in August 2021. Householder was
finally expelled from the
House in June 2021, which will be filled by Ohio
State Highway Patrol former
commander, Kevin D. Miller.
Ohio Citizen Action celebrates all
of these victories, but more work needs to be done. As you read this,
$233,000 taxpayer dollars a day flow to subsidize two dirty, old coal
plants on the Ohio River, and Ohio’s energy efficiency and renewable
energy standards remain gutted. Ohio Citizen Action has
continued the call for a FULL repeal of HB 6.
ACTION: Even if
you’ve written before, please take the time to tell
your legislators again to
FINISH THE JOB and fully repeal House Bill 6 at repealhb6.com.
House Bill 109 was introduced in
February 2021 by Reps. Cindy Abrams (R- 29) and Sara Carruthers (R-
51). HB 109 is an
anti-protest bill which
raises the stakes of being involved in a protest in order to
intimidate activists and chill free speech. Not long after its
introduction, the board at Ohio Citizen Action voted to strongly oppose HB
109. The bill creates higher fines and prison time
for individuals involved in and organizations supporting any protest
where the activities are subjectively deemed a “riot.”
Opponent testimony on HB 109 was
held Thursday, June 24, but it
was added to the committee's agenda on a Tuesday evening, with a 9:00
am Wednesday deadline for all testimony. It's not surprising that the
Ohio legislature scheduled an opponent hearing for an anti-protest
bill with so little notice. As of now, it is unclear how or when HB
109 will move forward. Ohio Citizen
Action remains strongly opposed to HB
109.
ACTION: Call or
email your state representative and urge them to vote
against HB 109. Find your rep
here: Ohio House District
Map.
Introduced in February 2021, Senate
Bill 52 is sponsored by Sens. Bill Reineke (R- 26) and Rob McColley
(R- 1). SB 52 subjects
renewable energy projects
to a new and additional layer of government regulation not
applied to any other energy source, and blocks landowners from
installing solar and wind projects on their own land.
Ohio Citizen Action took swift
action to strongly oppose SB 52 and to organize members to urge state
lawmakers to stop the bill. The controversial legislation faced
roadblocks and many rewrites as a result, including united opposition
from the business, farming, and environmental communities -- and did
not get the easy victory proponents had expected.
The soon-to-be law is a de facto moratorium on wind and solar energy production in
the state. SB 52 is currently sitting on Governor DeWine’s desk. It
has become clear the policy is going to be a substantial deterrent to
economic investment in Ohio, so while we expect the Governor to sign
the bill into law, its detrimental impacts likely mean this
conversation will continue.
Find out how your representatives
and senators voted on SB 52 here. Ohio Citizen Action
remains strongly opposed to SB 52.
ACTION: Call your state legislators to thank those who voted against SB 52 and
express your displeasure with those who voted yes. Find out your
legislators' phone numbers with The Ohio Legislator District
Maps.
After months of pressure from
Ohioans to repeal HB6, Senate Bill 117 was introduced in March 2021 by
Sens. Mark Romanchuck (R- 22) and Hearcel Craig (D- 15). SB 117 is a
bipartisan repeal of the HB 6 rate-payer funded bailout for
the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation (OVEC) coal plants:
Kyger Creek in Ohio and Clifty Creek in Indiana.
As you may know, OVEC was initially developed in response to
national security concerns during the 1950s, OVEC’s contract with the
Department of Energy ended in 2003. The plants are currently owned by
AEP, Duke, FirstEnergy, and AES Ohio (formerly Dayton Power and
Light). These utility companies were committed to pay any OVEC costs
through 2040, which ended up being a bad business decision on their
part, which led to the rate-payer funded OVEC bailout included in HB
6.
The repeal of this coal bailout
is a strong step in
the right direction. Proponent testimony for SB 117 was held in May 2021, and came
from a large and vocal group of stakeholders. Business owners,
environmental advocates, and members of the public all voiced their
support for SB
117. Opponent testimony for
SB 117 was held June 15, 2021. It starkly contrasted the proponent
hearing in that the only opposition came from representatives of the
utility companies. While the legislature is on recess,
SB 117 sits in the Senate Energy
and Public Utilities committee. A full repeal of HB 6 is incomplete without a repeal of the OVEC
bailout, and we need Ohio lawmakers to pass SB 117 to make this
possible. Ohio Citizen Action is strongly in favor of
SB 117.
ACTION: Call your state senator and strongly urge them to support SB 117.
Find your senator here: Ohio Senate District
Map.
You make this advocacy
possible. We couldn't do it without you!
Lawmakers may be on summer break, but we can't afford to slow
down.
Please help with a special gift to keep the
pressure on.
We look forward to sharing more with you about the great
things happening at Ohio Citizen Action, and hope you have a wonderful
summer.
Ohio
Citizen
Action
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