The Ohio Senate voted unanimously Wednesday to pass an extensive bill lawmakers and lobbyists have said will prompt new energy generation and otherwise overhaul the system as power-intensive consumers, namely data centers, put increasing pressure on the grid statewide.
The effort, and a related one in the House through , moves as the state stares down eventual electric shortages from growing demand, which the Ohio Business Roundtable forecasted could come as soon as two years from now.
addresses a range of related issues, including energy costs for consumers, reliability, and barriers to entering the market for utilities, Sen Bill Reineke (R-Tiffin) said.
鈥淭hat growth needs energy,鈥� Reineke said Wednesday.
The priority legislation piece, which was amended over and over before it went to the Senate floor, ends direct subsidies to some solar power projects and also controversial ones to two Ohio Valley Electric Cooperative power plants.
鈥淥ne of which is in Indiana, for gosh sakes,鈥� Sen. Kent Smith (D-Euclid) said.
Those coal bailouts were enacted under House Bill 6 in 2019, the legislative portion of a nuclear power bailout scandal that led to numerous federal convictions and indictments, including landing Republican former House Speaker Larry Householder and former Ohio Republican Party Chair Matt Borges in federal prison.
Smith said he believes SB 2 is making a strange case for term limits, too.
鈥淎s less of the General Assembly had to defend their House Bill 6 vote, some sensibility kind of began to get baked into the process,鈥� Smith said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 for the benefit of everyday Ohioans.鈥�
The bill makes dozens of other changes to electric law. It eliminates a transmission tax on projects that plan to generate new energy, Reineke said, and lowers it otherwise.
SB 2 also establishes a shot clock, hastening turnaround time for regulatory decisions by the Ohio Power Siting Board. Reineke said he believes Ohio can鈥檛 lag behind California and New York.
Under the bill, utility distributors would also be required to come before another regulatory board, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO), and make their case for their rates every three years. And senators voted to get rid of riders鈥攐r fees utilities quietly tack onto consumer bills鈥攚ithout PUCO review and authorization.
鈥淯tilities were using it to say, well, 鈥業鈥檓 going to add this one-off additional charge to your bill, it鈥檚 only 50 cents. Then there鈥檒l be another one. 鈥榃ell, it鈥檚 only a quarter.鈥� Well, it got so bad that there were 50 riders on at least one utility鈥檚 service bills,鈥� said Todd Snitchler, an energy attorney and former regulator and state lawmaker.
Snitchler believes the legislation being worked on has something in it for everyone, he said in an interview Wednesday.
鈥淎s long as people don鈥檛 get greedy,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f you give the generators the ability to compete against each other to deliver the electrons, that鈥檚 where they need to be, if you keep the utilities in the wires business in a way that is accountable to the PUCO and to their customers, that鈥檚 a win for them, and in the end it鈥檚 a win for consumers because they鈥檙e going to have better line of sight into their bills.鈥�
Major utility providers, including FirstEnergy and American Electric Power (AEP) of Ohio, have been the biggest opponents so far. Lawmakers, so far, don鈥檛 seem to want to give in to them, Snitchler said.
Some environmental advocates have also voiced concerns with SB 2 and HB 15. Meanwhile, the bills鈥� proponents cover a swath of interests, from other environmental advocates to the Ohio Consumers Counsel to the Ohio Manufacturers鈥� Association.
SB 2 is off to the House. House lawmakers are continuing to consider and change their own bill, which includes similar ideas. HB 15 could get a vote as soon as Wednesday morning.
