Energy

This week, appeals court judges upheld the convictions of former House Speaker Larry Householder for his role in the bribery scheme to pass House Bill 6, which included $1 billion for two nuclear plants.

The judges found that there was enough evidence for the jury to conclude that Householder solicited and received millions of dollars from FirstEnergy in return for passing the bailout legislation. Householder will continue to serve his 20-year federal prison sentence. 5/6/2025

PJM opened a one-time process for new generation to skip its long interconnection queue and come online faster, called the Reliability Resource Initiative. The initiative chose 51 shovel-ready projects to be placed in front of the interconnection queue, totaling 11.8 GW of additional generation.

Of the selected projects, 69% are natural gas, 19% are battery energy storage, 12% are nuclear, and 0.1% are coal. 90% of projects are expected to come online by 2030, with the remaining 10% to come online by 2031. Although the application guidance indicated that any resource was eligible to apply, it is clear that there was a heavy bias towards thermal resources. In Ohio, nine projects were approved. All of Ohio’s approved projects are natural gas power plants, seven of them being expansions of already existing plants and two being new natural gas power plants in Lucas and Carroll counties. PJM’s Reliability Resource Initiative is one of several reforms PJM is instituting to interconnect more electricity generation. 5/8/2025

The Ohio Legislature this week passed House Bill 15, a landmark energy bill focused on repealing provisions of House Bill 6, repeal of above-market charges, and increased utility transparency.

The OMA praised HB 15 in a statement on Wednesday, calling it the “foundation” for Ohio’s energy future.

House Bill 15, which was passed near unanimously across both chambers, contains an immediate repeal of the OVEC subsidies that were the core of the notorious House Bill 6 scandal that ended with then Speaker of the House Larry Householder indicted and sentenced to prison.

Other key provisions of House Bill 15 include the repeal of above-market charges, also known as “riders,” that customers are presently forced to pay and increased utility transparency in the form of energy “heat maps.”

The bill now heads to Governor DeWine’s desk. The Governor is expected to sign the bill into law by the end of May. 4/30/2025

Last week, the OMA and the Ohio Oil & Gas Association (OOGA) sent a letter to Senate President Rob McColley voicing concerns over a proposal in the state budget that would subsidize certain biofuels over others.

Under the proposal, fueling stations across Ohio could receive up to $100,000 in state-funded rebates for selling a15 percent ethanol blend (E15), significantly tipping the playing field in favor of E15 over other fuels.

The state budget is still being deliberated by the legislature, with lawmakers having a June 30 deadline to get the budget to DeWine for his signature. 4/30/2025

The landmark energy bill for Ohio’s General Assembly is set to be passed next week, according to Speaker of the House Matt Huffman (R-Lima).

House Bill 15 contains an immediate repeal of the OVEC subsidies that were the core of the notorious House Bill 6 scandal that ended with then Speaker of the House Larry Householder indicted and sentenced to prison.

Other key provisions of House Bill 15 include the repeal of above-market charges, also known as “riders,” that customers are presently forced to pay, and increased utility transparency in the form of energy “heat maps.”

The Ohio Senate and House must concur on changes to the bill before sending it to Governor DeWine, who has signaled that he will sign it into law. 4/24/2025

Grid operator PJM Interconnection (PJM) announced this week that its president and CEO, Manu Asthana, has decided to step down from his role with PJM at the end of 2025. The PJM Board has formed a CEO Search Committee and has engaged Korn Ferry to assist with the search. The PJM Board intends to solicit input from PJM members and stakeholders as part of its search process, which is targeted to conclude later this year.

The announcement comes amid frustration over spiking capacity charges set to hit customers bills in June. The OMA has critiqued PJM’s delays to its capacity auction to procure new power generation, as timely auctions are critical to procure new plants to replace retiring power plants. The auction delays combined with questionable capacity market changes by PJM and PJM’s backlogged interconnection queue for new generation, rated among the nation’s worst, have all contributed to the increases. 4/15/2025

AEP subsidiary Indiana Michigan Power, a regulated distribution and generation electric monopoly in Indiana and Michigan, has requested approval from Indiana electric regulators to purchase and own a competitive natural-gas-fired power plant in Ohio, the 870-megawatt Oregon Clean Energy Center. The request would remove this competitive power generation from the regional electricity market and put it into AEP’s Indiana monopoly supply. The move is likely unnecessary – Indiana Michigan Power can purchase additional power supply on PJM’s competitive markets if it needs to. It also appears to counter narratives from utilities of an imminent power shortage in Ohio. The shortage claim was previously called into question with another AEP announcement to ship power to the east coast.

AEP’s announcement to monopolize competitive Ohio power generation with their Indiana utility comes at a sensitive time – Ohio’s state House and Senate recently voted a combined 122-3 to affirm the state’s commitment to energy markets while rescinding Ohio ratepayer subsidization of an AEP-owned coal plant in Indiana that has cost Ohioans hundreds of millions of dollars. 4/16/2025

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s criminal case against former House Speaker Larry Householder has been rescheduled from April 28 to November 3. Householder has been accused of illegally using campaign funds to defend himself in a March 2023 federal trial. He has been charged with aggravated theft, theft in office, money laundering, and tampering with records. His attorneys are set to argue for the case’s dismissal on August 20.

Householder is already serving a 20-year prison sentence on federal charges related to the House Bill 6 bribery scandal.

Meanwhile, in the Franklin County Common Pleas Court, Attorney General Yost has filed a formal request to compel four former FirstEnergy Corp. executives to cooperate with an ongoing investigation by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. This marks the first time in nearly 40 years that Ohio’s attorney general is using a law to force witnesses to testify before energy regulators in exchange for criminal immunity. 4/16/2025

The Supreme Court of Ohio recently heard arguments regarding the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio’s (PUCO) offset of AES Ohio’s significantly excessive earnings test (SEET) for 2018 and 2019, which otherwise would have produced tens of millions of dollars in refunds to the utility’s customers. A SEET is a process where the PUCO evaluates the earnings of investor-owned electric utilities to determine if their earnings are significantly excessive, and if so, requires them to return the excess to consumers.

The question before the court is whether the PUCO could consider the utility’s future committed investments to offset required consumer refunds. In their questioning, many of the Supreme Court justices appeared to agree that the capital requirements of future committed investments are part of a holistic accounting of SEET but should not be subtracted from apparent refunds. The Court is expected to issue a final decision in four to six months. 4/16/2025

A two-part documentary, The Dark Money Game, will premiere on HBO on April 15 at 9:00 p.m., covering the House Bill 6 scandal and the role of dark money in politics.

The portion focusing on House Bill 6, titled Ohio Confidential, will feature retired FBI agents along with former U.S. Attorney David DeVillers and others involved in the uncovering of the bribery scheme that resulted in former Speaker Larry Householder being sent to prison for 20 years. 4/8/2025

Microsoft has confirmed that it will no longer move forward with its immediate plans to build data centers in Licking County. It had previously planned to invest $1 billion toward three data center campuses in New Albany, Heath, and Hebron. Microsoft will continue to own the land and plans to ensure that two of the three sites can be used for farming. Additionally, Microsoft will carry out development agreements to fund roadway and utility project upgrades.

Microsoft’s decision to pull out of these projects comes amid a controversial proposed data center tariff from AEP Ohio that is pending at the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. OMA Energy Group has intervened to oppose this discriminatory tariff as it is discriminatory and anti-competitive. 4/8/2025

While the House and Senate continue to negotiate provisions of House Bill 15 and Senate Bill 2 behind the scenes, the Senate held a hearing on House Bill 15 this week. Both bills promote competitive generation in Ohio and repeal costly subsidies on customers’ electricity bills.

The OMA testified in favor of HB 15 to express support for immediate repeal of costly subsidies currently paid to two unneeded and uneconomic coal plants, in addition to provisions added to require transparency and accountability from electric utilities. It is expected that Senate Bill 2 and House Bill 15 will be reconciled soon, and one of the bills will be passed by the end of April. Manufacturers are encouraged to continue urging their legislators to vote yes. 3/4/2025

Deliberations have begun on reconciling differences between the House and Senate energy priority bills, House Bill 15 and Senate Bill 2. These pro-customer bills both propose to enact significant energy policy reform favoring customers over utilities by including repeal of costly subsidies that manufacturers are currently forced to pay and putting an end to unneeded riders on electricity bills.

While the final details of the legislation are being ironed out, manufacturers are encouraged to take action and urge legislators to vote yes. It is anticipated that the final bill will be sent to the Governor’s desk by the end of April. 4/2/2025

The House Finance Committee unveiled their version of the Fiscal Year 2026-2027 operating budget in substitute House Bill 96. The original proposed budget from Governor DeWine had contained language allowing electric distribution utilities (EDUs) to gain a foothold in the competitive generation market by constructing behind-the-meter renewable generation for mercantile customers. Under the Governor’s proposal, this would have been expanded to allow EDUs to construct a “green energy resource,” recently redefined to include natural gas and nuclear generation. While this would have been chilling to the competitive marketplace and driven up costs to customers, the House removed the language this week.

Another energy policy change made by the House Finance Committee to the budget this week is the addition of language to allow EDUs to own electric vehicle charging stations in areas of last resort and to construct “make ready” infrastructure, which could allow utilities to socialize a greater percentage of the electrical line extension work needed, resulting in increased costs on customers’ electric bills. The OMA testified to express concern with the newly added language. 4/2/2025

Last year, FirstEnergy asked the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) to increase customers’ bases rates, seeking a $183 million revenue increase. State auditors hired by the PUCO, however, concluded this week that an $8.5 million increase would be more appropriate, a significant decrease from FirstEnergy’s original request. OMA Energy Group has intervened in the rate case to oppose the increase.

Hearing at the PUCO will begin on May 5. The case will also receive three public hearings to gather consumer testimony on the request, the first of which was held on Thursday in Cleveland. This is the first comprehensive review of FirstEnergy’s electric rates since 2007. 4/2/2025

The Ohio House on Wednesday passed House Bill 15, landmark electricity reform to repeal costly riders on customers’ power bills, in sweeping fashion.

Among items debated by lawmakers was the continuation of customer-paid subsidies for two unneeded and uneconomical coal power plants. The power plant subsidies, which only benefited utilities, were authorized by the infamous House Bill 6 scandal that resulted in the criminal prosecution and incarceration of a former Ohio Speaker of the House. Remarkably, one group suggested lawmakers continue the utility giveaway. Lawmakers were undeterred, approving the bill 90-3.

The OMA applauded the passage in a statement, thanking the legislature for their leadership and staying strong to protect competitive generation.

The House and Senate companion bills will need to be reconciled in the coming weeks. Manufacturers are encouraged to take action by contacting their legislators and urging them to defend competitive generation and protect customers. 3/26/2025

After weeks of deliberation, the Ohio Senate on Wednesday passed Senate Bill 2, landmark energy legislation that would repeal costly ESPs and end subsidies to failing coal power plants.

The OMA applauded the passage in a statement, highlighting the bill as a “critical step forward in transparency and protection of competitive electricity generation.”

Senate Bill 2 now heads to the Ohio House, where it will begin working its way through the House Energy Committee. OMA staff will continue to update members on its status.

OMA members took action this week to support the bill, making direct contact with their senators to advocate for passage of the bill.

Over in the House, work continues on their version of the priority energy legislation, House Bill 15. The OMA testified in support of House Bill 15 and the additional OMA-requested language added to the bill to protect customers. While the bill contains many pro-manufacturing reforms, the OMA urged the committee to ensure that customers who are participating in transmission programs are protected from unexpected changes to their energy bills.

House Bill 15 is anticipated to be scheduled for a vote next week. 3/19/2025

This week, the OMA held its first Energy Committee of the year, featuring updates on both landmark House and Senate energy bills, ongoing cases at the PUCO, and presentations on Ohio’s energy policy.

The OMA Energy Committee was joined virtually by State Rep. Adam Holmes, Chair of the House Energy Committee, who updated members on House Bill 15, a priority OMA energy bill that would eliminate the costly Electric Security Plans (ESPs), end coal power plant subsidies under the corrupt House Bill 6, and ensure critical support for new generation. 3/13/2025

Hearings continued this week on House Bill 15, the Ohio House version of landmark energy legislation that would, among other provisions, eliminate the costly Electric Security Plans (ESPs), end coal power plant subsidies under the corrupt House Bill 6, and ensure critical support for new generation.

The House Energy Committee made several amendments to the bill, including requiring utilities to publish heat maps of Ohio’s electrical grid, a step toward accountability and transparency that attracts business investment.

As with any complicated piece of legislation, refinement is frequently needed to keep things moving in the right direction and prevent unwelcome, last-minute amendments from eroding the original, positive intent. OMA members and our energy experts have been working with lawmakers to do just that.

But the staff at the OMA cannot do this alone. Manufacturers are among the most important businesses in the state and can make a difference when they choose to engage. You have the opportunity to shape the outcome of this public policy debate by adding your voice. Click the button below to take action and call your state lawmakers to urge support for these repeals and further changes. 3/12/2025

After several positive hearings on the Ohio Senate’s landmark energy bill, a substitute bill introduced on Tuesday made several sweeping pro-utility changes that were harmful enough for OMA to withdraw its support of the bill.

Chief among them is the ability for Ohio’s largest utilities to provide so-called “behind the meter” power generation services, a move that takes a step backwards from competitive markets and deregulation in Ohio. The sub bill also made numerous changes to the ratemaking process, including allowing utilities to annually increase rates in a forecasted test period, resulting in the elimination of rate stability and certainty for customers.

The OMA’s energy counsel, Kim Bojko, denounced the changes, highlighting that they will make it difficult for energy-intensive users, like manufacturers, to locate or expand in Ohio due to uncertainty in rates and energy costs. 3/4/2025