Gov. Mike DeWine says he doesn't support HB6′s coal-plant subsidies, pledges not to take FirstEnergy donations

COLUMBUS — Gov. Mike DeWine on Tuesday indicated he doesn't support a remnant of the scandal-ridden House Bill 6 that requires Ohio ratepayers to subsidize an Indiana coal-fired power plant. Speaking with the editorial board of The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com, DeWine also pledged that his campaign would no longer accept any political contributions from FirstEnergy Corp., the Akron-based utility at the heart of the HB6 bribery scandal. In addition, the Greene County Republican said he's open in principle to making some changes regarding how Public Utilities Commission of Ohio members are chosen. When asked what he thinks about Ohioans paying subsidies through 2030 to support the Kyger Creek plant in Clifton, Ohio and the Clifty Creek plant in Madison, Indiana, DeWine said, "Well, certainly not the one in Indiana." The governor said that answer is "a little facetious, but it's not – it's an answer." He said later: "I don't know any particular reason that we would ...want to see that (coal subsidy) continue." HB6, signed into law by DeWine in 2019, gave a $1 billion-plus ratepayer bailout to two Northern Ohio nuclear power plants owned by FirstEnergy Solutions, a then-subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. that's now called Energy Harbor. Before passing the bill, state lawmakers added other provisions, including statewide customer subsidies to the two coal plants and six solar projects. DeWine signed legislation last year to repeal parts of HB6 — including the nuclear bailout — after federal authorities charged then- Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four others with using $60 million in FirstEnergy Corp. bribe money to secure the bill's passage. The legislature didn't repeal the coal and solar subsidies. A recent study by opponents of the HB6 coal-plant subsidies found they could cost Ohioans a total of $1.8 billion by 2030 — more than the cost of the nuclear bailout. The governor said Tuesday — as he has in the past — that he supported HB6 because the nuclear plants' owner, FirstEnergy Solutions, claimed it would have to close the facilities without a bailout. The coal plant subsidies, he said, were "thrown into the original bill" by state lawmakers. "My focus was on nuclear power, not coal power," DeWine said. Even without DeWine's support of the coal-plant subsidies, there currently isn't enough support in the Republican-dominated state legislature to repeal them. "We've beat this horse to death. It's not going to change," said Ohio House Majority Leader Bill Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican, in an interview last October. Exactly how much each Ohio utility customer pays to subsidize the coal plants varies month to month, depending on the wholesale energy market and other factors. HB6 caps monthly coal plant-related charges at $1.50 per month for residential customers. Residential customers of American Electric Power, Duke Energy, and AES Ohio (formerly called Dayton Power & Light) currently pay an average of $1.30, $1.07, and $1.06 per month, respectively, according to officials with the respective companies. The Ohio Valley Electric Corporation — owned by more than a dozen utility companies, including AEP Ohio, Duke Energy, AES Ohio, and two FirstEnergy Corp subsidiaries — operate both plants. The plants were built in the mid-1950s to provide power to a uranium enrichment plant in Southern Ohio. The enrichment plant closed in 2003, but OVEC decided to keep them running. To do so, OVEC spent more than $1.3 billion on "scrubbers" to reduce the plants' sulfur emissions. In addition, the cost of generating power from the plants has been far higher than market prices, according to a study released last month by the Ohio Manufacturers Association. AEP, Duke, and AES Ohio customers have already been paying for years to help keep the plants in operation under proposals approved by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. HB6 codified those subsidies into state law through 2030. The energy law also mandated that starting in January 2020, FirstEnergy customers had to begin paying subsidies for the plants. DeWine foreswears FirstEnergy donations During Tuesday's interview, DeWine also pledged not to accept any campaign donations from FirstEnergy in the future. However, the governor indicated he believes that such a pledge would be moot because FirstEnergy will try to avoid political contributions in the future. In February 2021, FirstEnergy executives announced in February 2021 that the company would suspend all political spending and stop donations to "dark money" groups altogether. Under a deal struck with federal prosecutors last August, the company also agreed to disclose its political spending publicly. After Householder's arrest in July 2020, DeWine said his campaign would donate all of its campaign contributions from FirstEnergy to charity. FirstEnergy, as well as the company's lobbyists, executives, and political action committee, gave $236,000 to DeWine's campaign and his inauguration fund between 2017 and March 2021, according to an analysis conducted by the Dayton Daily News. However, FirstEnergy contributed far more than that to outside, pro-DeWine groups. In 2018, FirstEnergy Solutions gave $500,000 to the Republican Governors Association, which aired TV ads on DeWine's behalf. FirstEnergy Solutions hedged its bets by donating $250,000 to a super PAC backing DeWine's Democratic opponent, Richard Cordray. 'Open' to PUCO reforms Since FirstEnergy disclosed in late 2020 that it gave millions of dollars in what it admitted was bribe money to then-PUCO Chair and DeWine appointee Sam Randazzo, the whole process of appointing PUCO members has come under increased scrutiny. DeWine said Tuesday that he is "open" to reforming the current process used to name members of the PUCO, in which the governor picks a nominee from a list of three finalists put forward by a nominating panel whose members are also named by the governor. That system was put into place in 1982 by state lawmakers – DeWine was a state senator at the time – to forestall an ultimately unsuccessful proposed constitutional amendment that would require the election of PUCO members and public financing of their campaigns. DeWine didn't give specific examples of the changes he would favor making to the PUCO nominating process. But he said he believes the governor should continue to have the power to appoint state public utilities commissioners. "I think that this person is an integral part of state government and should be appointed by the governor," DeWine said. The two Democrats vying to run against DeWine this fall have pledged to take sterner ethics reforms if elected. Former Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley has promised, if elected, to fire all five members of the PUCO. Ex-Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley has proposed creating a new Public Accountability Commission to oversee ethics complaints against the PUCO and other parts of state government. ©2022 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit cleveland.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.