WARREN — Democratic lawmakers here are calling for the immediate repeal of the taxpayer-funded nuclear plant bailout law at the center of a bribery scandal surrounding one of the state’s most power politicians, saying it’s one step to restore the public’s shaken confidence in government.

The bloc of lawmakers from the Mahoning Valley also say the issue involving House Bill 6 — the foundation of the rescue package — runs deeper to underscore the underlying problems with campaign financing in Ohio.

REPEAL

State Sen. Sean O’Brien said he’s prepared today to introduce legislation with Republican joint sponsor Stephanie Kunze of Hilliard to reverse HB 6.

Similar legislation joint sponsored by state Reps. Michael O’Brien, D-Warren, and Michael Skindell, D-Lakewood, is expected in the House today. State Rep. Gil Blair, D-Weathersfield, is signed on as a co-sponsor.

“This type of illegal activity is one of the greatest threats to our state,” said Sean O’Brien, D-Bazetta. “It erodes public confidence in our system of government. It casts a shadow on the thousands of hard-working elected officials and public officials who go to work every day to try to do what is right to make lives better for Ohioans.”

The financial rescue added a new fee to every electricity bill in the state and directed more than $150 million a year through 2026 plants near Cleveland and Toledo. The plants were owned by former subsidiaries of First Energy Corp.

It also scales back and eventually ends requirements that utilities generate more power from wind and solar.

The repeal would “essentially make it that House Bill 6 never existed. The bailout of the two nuclear power plants never existed and the consumers who were going to be paying 85 cents a month for the next seven years, that never existed. The corporations paying thousands of dollars a month, that never existed,” said Michael O’Brien, who led the opposition effort to the bill as co-chairman of the House’s energy generation committee.

The local announcement Wednesday, echoed by other lawmakers in Columbus, comes one day after Larry Householder, the Republican speaker of the Ohio House, and four associates were arrested in a $60 million federal bribery case connected to the taxpayer-funded bailout.

Householder was one of the driving forces behind the nuclear plants’ financial rescue. Previous attempts to bail out the nuclear plants had stalled in the Legislature before Householder became speaker. Months after taking over, he rolled out a new plan to subsidize the plants and eliminate renewable energy incentives.

State Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan, D-Youngstown, supports a repeal of HB 6 and is a co-sponsor on the bill.

“We should eliminate the bailout and Householder should immediately resign,” she said. “This tainted money should be donated to charity.”

She called the bill “a corporate bailout on the backs of working people that stripped our state of job opportunities and progress in renewable energy.”

State Rep. Al Cutrona, R-Canfield, who was chosen by House Republicans in May to fill the vacancy left by the death of Don Manning, didn’t call for Householder’s resignation in a written statement.

Instead, he wrote he is “truly appalled” by the allegations against Householder, adding, “While every person deserves their day in court, if indeed corruption is found and proven, I will move quickly to address this matter.”

In a separate written statement, Cutrona said two of his fellow Republicans are working on legislation to repeal HB 6 and he is co-sponsoring it.

The legislation would “repeal what is at the center of these allegations, HB 6. I believe that this piece of legislation will help reinstill public trust in the legislative process,” he said.

Attempts Wednesday to reach state Sen. Michael Rulli, R-Salem, about Householder and a repeal of HB 6 were unsuccessful. Rulli was one of only five Republicans who voted against the bill when the Senate approved it 19-12 on July 17, 2019.

Despite the indictments and questionable actions taken to pass HB 6, Gov. Mike DeWine said he doesn’t support repealing the law.

DeWine said he and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted have advocated for a “balanced energy policy” in the state and “we believe having nuclear power plants in Ohio is part of that.”

He said he supported the bill because of the jobs at the plants and that they would have closed without the bailout. Also, the state needs energy sources that aren’t carbon-based and that includes nuclear.

CAMPAIGN FINANCE

Without meaningful campaign finance reform, the possibility of future corruption continues to exist, Sean O’Brien said.

A criminal complaint filed by the FBI says Generation Now, a group that fought a ballot initiative to repeal House Bill 6 last year, received $60 million from an unidentified company over the past three years. In exchange, Householder and the other defendants worked to pass the nuclear plant bailout and block attempts to overturn it.

Householder and the others used the money to preserve and expand his political power in Ohio, the complaint said.

“That we’re able to have 501c4s with hidden money that we are able to have zero oversight, that we are able to use this unfettered money, this slush fund to then go out and plan for the future … that is the fundamental issue that if we don’t correct will continue, so until we have some real campaign finance reform, things like this can pop up again,” Sean O’Brien said.

“The tip of the iceberg is House Bill 6 because that is the end result of what happened, the fundamental problem underneath that tip is campaign finance,” he said. “That money has to be transparent, we have to know where it goes to, who is giving to us and how is it being spent.”

LOCAL FALLOUT

“This bill, although it seems far away in Columbus. it had an impact on the Mahoning Valley and it served to at least delay the start of construction of a second gas-powered plant in Lordstown,” Blair said.

The bill was the reason for aborting plans for a third billion-dollar gas-fired plant in Lordstown. At the time in August, nearly $1 million had been spent to develop and get permits for the third plant, called Lordstown-3.

“I think it’s important to understand the impact that House Bill 6 actually had on the Mahoning Valley,” Blair said. “When this bill came up, it was vehemently opposed by the natural gas power industry.”

Bill Siderewicz, president of Clean Energy Future LLC and a minority investor in the gas-fired plant on Henn Parkway, Lordstown Energy Center, warned then HB 6 would have a chilling effect in Ohio by forcing new investment outside of the state.

rselak@tribtoday.com

dskolnick@tribtoday.com