By Christen Smith
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost last week approved a draft petition to repeal the state’s nuclear subsidy program, giving supporters just seven weeks to collect more than 265,000 signatures to get the referendum on the November 2020 ballot.
Gene Pierce, spokesperson for Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts and sponsor of the petition, said the “quick resolution will help Ohio voters exercise their constitutional right to put controversial legislation up to a statewide vote.”
Yost rejected the first draft last month, citing disparities in its language compared with the Ohio Clean Air Act signed into law on July 23. (See Ohio Activist Unfazed by Denial of Nuke Petition.) The act replaces the state’s renewable energy mandates with ratepayer surcharges to support FirstEnergy Solutions’ Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear plants and two Ohio Valley Electric Corp. (OVEC) coal plants. (See Ohio Approves Nuke Subsidy.)
The controversial law makes Ohio the third state in the PJM footprint to provide subsidies for its nuclear plants as cheap natural gas floods the wholesale power market and drives energy prices down to record low levels. (See Monitor: PJM Markets Remain ‘Under Attack’.) Supporters say keeping the reactors operating will reduce carbon emissions — a primary target of clean energy bills across the country — and provide around-the-clock reliability to support the intermittency of solar and wind power.
Pierce’s group argues the law amounts to a “corporate bailout” that wastes money on less efficient resources at the expense of continuing to expand Ohio’s renewable energy portfolio. And it has some powerful, if not unlikely, allies on its side: the natural gas industry, independent power producers, environmental activists and clean energy groups.
But not everyone agrees. Last month, Ohioans for Energy Security launched a $1 million television and radio ad campaign that links the petition to furthering the interests of the Chinese government, warning residents not to sign away the state’s jobs and energy security.
The Energy and Policy Institute, a renewable energy advocacy group, said Ohioans for Energy Security’s spokesperson, Carlo LoParo, has connections to FES and also fronts the Ohio Clean Energy Jobs Alliance, a known proponent of the subsidy program.
“These ads are designed to intimidate and threaten our petitioners who are exercising their constitutionally guaranteed right to place this ridiculous bailout on the ballot,” Pierce said. “This is the kind of garbage that will get someone hurt, and we will hold all parties associated with their campaign responsible for any harm that comes to our circulators.”
But Pierce is also tight-lipped about where his group’s money comes from, telling RTO Insider previously that he will disclose its financial supporters as required by Ohio campaign finance law.
“Until then, I can say that you will find that they are many of the same groups and individuals who testified against the bill in the legislative debate over the bill,” he said.