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Aug 03 2020

Bills Introduced in Response to Ohio House GOP Scandal

Ohio House Has a New Speaker But No Plans To Legislate

Last week, Ohio Republicans selected the man who would become the next House Speaker. Lima Republican Bob Cupp was selected as Ohio’s newest House Speaker following a 90-0 vote to remove Larry Householder, who was indicted by a federal grand jury earlier in the day on charges of orchestrating a $61 million pay-to-play scheme, the largest bribery scandal in Ohio history.

In remarks to the press after the vote, Cupp indicated he had no immediate plans to call the Chamber back into action, suggesting that the scheduled session date in mid-September might be the next time they would be back in Columbus. The Senate, likewise, has no scheduled meetings before mid-August, so, as a result, there are no committee hearings to share this week.

Today we’re sharing the new bills introduced since our last dispatch, many of them a response to the Householder/House GOP scandal and the controversial FirstEnergy bailout legislation at the center of it.

New Legislation This Week –

Below are some of the new bills lawmakers introduced in the last several weeks. You can also view the complete list of bills we’re tracking.

  • House Bill 733 (Russo, Crossman) – Collective Bargaining – to make employees of the General Assembly and any state agency of the legislative branch subject to the Public Employees’ Collective Bargaining Law and to require a public employer to collectively bargain with an exclusive representative of those employees.
  • House Bill 735 (Smith, K, Robinson) – Law Enforcement ID – to require certain law enforcement officers to wear a clearly visible badge and identification on their person while on duty and to impose a fine on the appointing authority of an officer who fails to comply.
  • House Bill 737 (Manning, Miranda) – Campaign Finance – to modify the Campaign Finance Law regarding independent expenditures and political action committees.
  • House Bill 738 (Skindell, O’Brien) – HB6 Repeal – to repeal the changes made by H.B. 6 of the 133rd General Assembly to the laws governing electric service, renewable energy, and energy efficiency and the changes made to other related laws.
  • House Bill 739 (Sweeney, Russo) – Campaign Finance – to modify the campaign finance law, to name this act the Ohio Anti- Corruption Act, and to amend the versions of sections 3517.10, 3517.105, and 3517.106 of the Revised Code that are scheduled to take effect January 1, 2021, to continue the provisions of this act on and after that effective date.
  • House Bill 741 (Manning, Greenspan) – Retirement Benefits – to add extortion and perjury and certain federal offenses to the offenses that may result in forfeiture or termination of public retirement system benefits.
  • Senate Bill 346 (O’Brien, Kunze) – Energy Repeal – to repeal the changes made by H.B. 6 of the 133rd General Assembly to the laws governing electric service, renewable energy, and energy efficiency and the changes made to other related laws.
  • Senate Bill 347 (Manning) – Campaign Finance – to modify the Campaign Finance Law regarding independent expenditures and political action committees.

Written by Terra Goodnight · Categorized: Democracy, Energy, Statehouse Update · Tagged: Bob Cupp, campaign finance, cupp, energy repeal, house bill 6, house gop, householder, Larry Householder, repeal hb6, Speaker Bob Cupp, Speaker of the House

Jun 03 2019

HB6 latest: Ohio Nuclear Bailout Measure Reaches Senate

A bill that would raise utility rates to bail out two Ohio nuclear power plants while gutting renewable energy standards cleared the Ohio House this week. House Bill 6, the so-called “Clean Air” bill, was approved by a 53-43 vote in House following a week of extensive hearings and last-minute lobbying efforts. The bill now heads to the Senate. Ohioans will pay for a “Clean Air Fund” to bail out FirstEnergy Solution’s Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear power plants through a $1 monthly surcharge on their electric bills. Backers of the bill argue that this fee will save consumers money as the bill repeals the current $4.68 monthly utility fee. While the bill takes aim at lowering electric rates and protecting jobs in the nuclear energy industry, it guts Ohio’s clean and renewable energy standards. Ohio would be the first state to enact a measure that subsidizes nuclear energy for financial reasons while at the same time eliminating clean energy standards. Make no mistake – Ohio lawmakers are making a deliberate choice to go this route. As noted by Inside Climate News, Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York have subsidized nuclear power plants recently, however, those measures bolstered support for clean and renewable energy. With both parties split on this legislation in the House, it’s not so obvious what political motives are behind some lawmaker’s support for it. This has been sought out by FirstEnergy and its PAC for a while now. Campaign finance records indicate that thousands of dollars were donated by FirstEnergy and its executives to Speaker Larry Householder and his loyalists. The struggling utility company’s former CEO, Anthony Alexander, donated $5,000 each to Householder’s and Rep. Jamie Callender’s (HB6 primary sponsor) 2018 campaign, along with a maximum contribution of $12,707 to Mike DeWine’s campaign. The Governor has come out in support of this bill. The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Editorial Board voiced its opposition to the bailout Friday, calling  HB6 “a platter of goodies for deep-pocketed special interests who spent liberally — not just in advocating for this legislation but also on Householder’s efforts to get his supporters elected or re-elected to the Ohio House, so they could choose him as speaker.” One of the last-minute changes to House Bill 6 was to expand the bill to expand eligibility for the subsidies generated by the bill beyond the state’s two nuclear power plans to large solar facilities. According to the Ohio Power Siting Board, six facilities have been approved that would be eligible under the latest changes to HB6. A look at whose districts those facilities are located in suggests which lawmakers were targeted by the move:

More Reading on House Bill 6

Innovation Ohio, “Nuclear Energy Bill Could Kill Ohio’s Clean Air Industry” Politico, “Ohio advances coal, nuclear subsidies after pressure from Trump campaign official“

Written by Alex Jackson · Categorized: Energy, Statehouse Update · Tagged: electric bill, Energy, energy bill, First Energy, FirstEnergy, Fracking, house bill 6, nuclear, nuclear bailout, nuclear power, ohio legislature, Severance Tax, surcharge

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