By Christen Smith

Advocates contesting Ohio nuclear plant subsidies missed the deadline on Monday for gathering enough signatures to get their referendum to overturn House Bill 6 on the 2020 statewide ballot.

Gene Pierce, spokesperson for Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts, released a statement blaming the organization’s shortfall on illegal tactics implemented by well-funded opposition groups and a 38-day delay in getting the petition approved for circulation.

“Nuclear bailout supporters of House Bill 6 have stooped to unprecedented and deceitful depths to stop Ohioans from exercising their Constitutional rights to put a bailout question on the ballot for voters to decide,” Pierce said. “We may never know how much money the corporate backers spent in their campaign of deceit, but we estimate their television, digital and radio advertising, direct mail and their blocking and fake petition to cost over $50 million.”

Pierce’s group led the campaign against HB 6 and began organizing petition efforts the same day Gov. Mike DeWine signed the legislation in July. It took 38 days, however, for the group to get approval from State Attorney General Dave Yost before they could start collecting the necessary 265,774 signatures — costing them more than a third of the 90-day deadline afforded to ballot petitions.

Pierce remains optimistic that the U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio will grant its request for an additional 38 days to gather signatures to make up for this “blackout period.” An evidentiary hearing is scheduled for Tuesday at which Judge Edmund Sargas Jr. could issue a bench ruling in the group’s favor. Sargas waived the preregistration requirement for petition circulators last week after the group successfully argued the state law violated free speech rights. (See Court Waives Ohio Preregistration Law.)

“We are fully prepared to continue circulating petitions if the court rules in our favor and grants us a full 90 days to collect signatures,” Pierce said.

FirstEnergy Solutions spokesperson Angela Pruitt told RTO Insider on Monday the company will resubmit deactivation notices for its Perry and Davis-Besse nuclear plants should Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts succeed in their efforts.

FES rescinded deactivation notices for both facilities in July after the state approved HB 6 — which would funnel $150 million in ratepayer fees to the plants beginning in 2020 — but Pruitt says the ballot petition to overturn the law could reverse that decision, placing 4,300 jobs at risk. (See Ohio Approves Nuke Subsidy.)

“Unfortunately, any additional negative news from the courts or the successful submission of petitions to put a referendum on the ballot will destabilize the financial situation of those plants,” she said. “This will force the company to move back on a path to deactivation if alternative measures to provide needed financial support do not arise quickly.”