Sierra Club update on Ohio nuclear bailout bill

Neil Waggoner, Ohio Campaign Representative, Sierra Club, Beyond Coal, sent out the following update on the Ohio nuclear bailout bill (Ohio House Bill 6, HB6):

Sent: Monday, July 01, 2019 10:08 AM

Good morning, all

As you are all likely aware at this point, Senate Energy and Public Utilities did NOT pass HB 6 over the weekend and meet FirstEnergy's unsubstantiated deadline. Below is a quick rundown of where we are and what's happening now. 

What happened with Committee hearings?

a.            Committee was first rescheduled from Friday to Saturday morning. Late Friday night, EPU was further delayed to 2pm on Saturday. 

What happened once EPU met?

a.            Chairman Wilson announced there were over 50 amendments submitted to HB 6 but they only planned to hear two of them. Those two amendments were then adopted. 

i.Amendment 1: The audit of the nuke plants as outlined in the Senate version of HB 6 will be made public.

ii.Amendment 2: Gives PUCO authority to develop rules over how many times an electric customer with multiple meters will be charged for the nuke bailout. Current bill has it as a by meter charge which means a company with multiple meters would pay the charge multiple times.

b.            After adopting the amendments, Chairman Wilson recessed the EPU and said they’d come back later to talk through more amendments. The recess went on for multiple hours with lots of rumors before coming back briefly late that night to announce EPU was adjourned with no further action.

Why did EPU adjourn with no further action?

a.            While all the craziness over HB 6 has been happening, we’ve also a major impasse over the two year state operating budget which has a constitutional requirement of being legislatively approved and enacted by the Governor on June 30th. Speaker Householder and Senate Pres Obhof (aka “The Larry’s”) have been fighting with each other on what that final budget will look like. 

b.            This loggerhead over the budget is rippling out and having impacts on other bills moving.

What happens next?

a.            The House and Senate passed a continuing resolution on the budget - only the third time that’s happened in the past 30 years and the first time it’s happened with all branches controlled by one party.

b.            Speaker Householder stated he’s not calling the full House back till at least July 8th.

c.            Pres Obhof stated hearings on HB 6 will continue with no clear deadline on when a floor vote could happen.

d.            There will be additional hearings on HB 6 but probably not this week. Most likely to start up next week.

What do we do with this extra time?

a.            Grassroots and business opposition is in full swing and the media is fully engaged. We need to keep that pressure up.

b.            Anyone that happens to run into a State Rep or Senator this week while they're out doing holiday parades needs to bring up HB 6 to them directly.

c.            While the media is fully engaged on this, we need to make sure stories keep coming out. To do that, we need LTEs submitted and lots of sharing of HB 6 stories on Facebook and Twitter - papers track those share and comment analytics to help better determine what they should keep reporters working on and publishing more.

d.            Keep up the calls to the Senate. Even if they're not meeting this week, we want their voicemail boxes filled with messages when they come back.

Neil

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Neil Waggoner
Ohio Campaign Representative

Sierra Club, Beyond Coal
Ohio Beyond Coal - Facebook  
Ohio Beyond Coal - Twitter 

131 N. High St., Suite 605
Columbus, Oh 43215
Office: 614-484-7033
Cell: 330-730-5109