Opponents Pile on Against Nuclear Bailout Legislation

Seventy-four opponents crammed into a tiny hearing room in the basement of the Statehouse this week to make the case against Substitute House Bill 6. Only two proponents appeared, and one was the bankrupt company that owns the uneconomical nuclear power plants, FirstEnergy Solutions.

The OMA was among the groups that filed testimony in opposition to the most current version of HB 6, which will cede more control to government bureaucrats in electricity pricing. The OMA testimony — delivered by Terri Sexton, Environmental & Energy Manager for Navistar — describes the numerous problems with the bill and provides precise examples of the bill’s impact on Navistar’s Springfield truck assembly plant. The OMA testimony characterizes the sub bill as “a mandated, customer-financed bailout of uneconomical power plants in the form of ‘clean air credits’ and direct subsidies.”

The bill has so many issues that it has united groups on the political right, like Americans for Prosperity, and groups on the left, like the Environment Defense Fund. 5/9/2019