nuclear-news

COLUMBUS — Republican lawmakers in the Ohio House introduced legislation Friday that would provide subsidies for two Ohio nuclear power plants owned by FirstEnergy Solutions, while at the same time defunding decade-old renewable energy and efficiency programs.

The bill also includes language to allow funds collected from ratepayers to “reduce the emissions from other generating technologies that can be readily dispatched to satisfy demand in real time,” without specifying what technologies that could include.

The Ohio Clean Air Program created by the proposed legislation would provide an annual subsidy for any power plant producing zero carbon dioxide emissions at the rate of $9.25 for every megawatt-hour produced. While the word “nuclear” does not actually appear anywhere in the bill, this designation would include nuclear plants and potentially some wind and solar installations.

But solar farms would have to be able to generate at least 50 megawatts (MW) in order to participate, and only wind farms between 5 MW and 50 MW could qualify.

A spokeswoman for the office of House Speaker Larry Householder (R-Glenford) acknowledged that there are currently no solar farms that large in operation in Ohio, but that three have been approved and another six very large solar projects are pending……….

Bill leaves many questions unanswered

The legislation proposes to create two categories of power plants — a “clean energy resource” and a “reduced emissions resource.” The first category would be defined as not producing any carbon dioxide, the latter describing power plants that have made, or will make, “significant contributions” to “minimizing emissions.”

The legislation does not specify what those terms mean, and leaves the details to the Ohio Air Quality Development Board, which must develop and administer the program. The bill would expand the OARDC, whose members are currently appointed by the governor, to include four state legislators…….

The company,  FirstEnergy Solutions, which has just been dealt a setback in a federal bankruptcy court ruling rejecting its agreement holding parent FirstEnergy Corp. harmless for future environmental problems, has told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it would close all three of its nuclear plants by the fall of 2021. Davis-Besse is the first plant it would close, by May 31, 2020.  …….

‘Nothing more than another bailout tax’

Clean energy advocates immediately condemned the legislation.

“The bill announced today is nothing more than another bailout tax for failing nuclear plants paid for on the back of hardworking Ohioans,” said Trish Demeter, vice president of Energy Policy at the Ohio Environmental Council.

“The proposed bill would dismantle one of the only state policies that reliably deliver electric bill savings to customers, decrease air pollution and create new jobs in Ohio,” she added in a prepared release.

Daniel Sawmiller, Ohio energy policy coordinator at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said “Ohio urgently needs to update its energy policies to match the national trend towards cleaner, cheaper and more reliable renewable energy and programs that reduce the amount of energy wasted in our homes and businesses.”

Sawmiller also predicted that the legislation would eventually cost ratepayers more.

“Eliminating the energy efficiency standard will result in higher electric bills as consumers would be forced to pay for energy that is unnecessarily wasted. This increases the output of Ohio’s generation stations, thereby increasing air emissions if we aren’t creating a path for significant renewable energy growth.

“It’s also important to keep in mind, the energy efficiency industry accounts for around 70 percent of Ohio’s clean energy jobs.”

The American Petroleum Institute was also sharply critical, calling the bill “nothing short of a taxpayer-funded bailout of failing nuclear power plants.”…….. https://energynews.us/2019/04/12/us/revised-ohio-nuclear-bailout-bill-raises-more-questions/