First Energy is an electric utility with headquarters in Akron, Ohio. In March of 2018, FirstEnergy announced that it was going to close the Perry Nuclear Generating Station in 2020 and the Davis–Besse Nuclear Power Station in 2021. Since then there has been a great deal of debate about the impact of the closures on Ohio and the question of whether or not the state of Ohio should subsidize nuclear power generation to prevent the plants from closing.
The Ohio state legislature just passed a bill called HB 6. From 2021 to 2027, Ohio ratepayers will pay a new monthly surcharge on their bills for electricity. Residential customers will pay eighty-five cents a month. Big industrial customers will pay up to two thousand four hundred dollars per month. The surcharge is expected to bring in an additional one hundred and seventy million dollars per year. One hundred and fifty million dollars will be provided to FirstEnergy to subsidize the Perry and Davis-Besse nuclear power plants. Obviously, FirstEnergy canceled its plans to close the two plants in 2020 and 2021.
FirstEnergy and its employees donated almost one million dollars to state legislators, other state office holders, candidates for public office and political parties prior to the close passage of HB 6. The money came from the FirstEnergy Corporation Political Action Committee and the fifteen thousand FirstEnergy employee who paid through payroll deductions. A dark money group supporting FirstEnergy paid most of the bill for almost ten million dollars in television adds supporting the passage of HB 6. Such money is rarely seen in Ohio politics. FirstEnergy has refused to respond to questions about the contributions. A spokesperson said, “FirstEnergy Corp. makes and discloses all campaign contributions in accordance with applicable state and federal laws.”
FirstEnergy provided a hundred and sixty-three thousand dollars to thirty five of the ninety-eight House members. Twenty of the thirty-five FirstEnergy supported candidates went on to vote for Larry Householder for the Ohio House Speakership and to vote for HB 5. He was instrumental in the passage of HB 6. Householder himself received over twenty-five thousand dollars from FirstEnergy. The Ohio House GOP caucus has received almost twenty thousand dollars from FirstEnergy since 2017. Republican members of the Ohio state Senate received about a hundred thousand in donations from FirstEnergy.
Ohio House Republican spokeswoman Gail Crawley said, “House Bill 6 was the result of extensive public hearings in both the House and Senate. It will cut mandates and save ratepayers $1.3 billion while preserving Ohio jobs and protecting Ohio’s environment.” Ohio Senate Republican spokesman John Fortney said, “Campaign contributions have nothing to do with policy outcomes in the Senate.”
Republican Mike DeWine is the governor of Ohio. He lobbied for the HB 6 bill and signed it when it came to his desk. He received over twenty five thousand dollars in donations from FirstEnergy. FirstEnergy upper management provided about thirteen thousand dollars in food and beverages for a GOP fundraiser and FirstEnergy also donated ten thousand dollars for the gubernatorial inaugural and transition fund. FirstEnergy employs almost two dozen lobbyists in the Ohio state capitol.
David Pomerantz is the executive director of the Energy and Policy Institute. He said, “While it’s unfortunately typical for investor-owned utilities to spend money to influence politicians, the amount of money that FirstEnergy Solutions, AEP and allied dark-money groups spent to buy support from legislators for their coal and nuclear bailout has been astronomical.”
I have said in previous posts that if not for the enormous amount of money to be made in the construction and operation of nuclear power plants, we would not be using nuclear power as a major source of electrical generation. Whatever economic, political and/or national security arguments may be presented to support nuclear power in the U.S., the main reason it still exists is perfectly illustrated by the huge amount of money that FirstEnergy poured into the political process to support the passage of HB 6.