The Ohio Legislature is considering this possibility HB 6Ohio’s Clean Air Program – A poorly named bill that would do just that cost Ohio families money and harm spotless energy job growth while failing to improve air quality.
Most families worry about paying bills, finding a good job and protecting the health of their loved ones. HB 6 makes it harder for Ohio families to succeed on all these fronts — it raises electricity bills for Ohio families and businesses, does nothing to support fight the respiratory diseases that cause air pollution, and makes it virtually impossible to build modern, job-creating projects in spotless energy in the state.
In reality, HB 6 is nothing more than old-fashioned government bailout, paid for by Ohioans. HB 6 subsidizes two aging coal plants, one of which is not even in Ohio, and bails out two nuclear plants at a cost of $150 million. All of this is happening on the backs of Ohio families. Instead of cutting taxes for Ohioans, lawmakers are funding anti-free market bailouts essentially adding a modern tax to residents’ electricity bills.
The truth is that these plants cannot compete in today’s energy market. Cheap natural gas is putting pressure on both the coal and nuclear industries. No amount of support financed by ratepayers will change this economic fact. Energy bailouts like HB 6 are a nonsensical response to the challenge of providing Ohio families with affordable, reliable and spotless energy. All they do is punish innocent payers and eliminate competition.
As if industrial subsidies alone weren’t more than Ohio families can afford, the proposed law also violates energy savings goals for consumers. The energy efficiency program saved money Electric bills total $5.1 million since its adoption in 2008. For every dollar invested program saves you $2.65. And they are over 112,000 spotless energy jobs in Ohio. HB 6 would stop all this progress.
HB 6 effectively prevents the construction of modern wind farms in Ohio as well. One of the provisions allows for a public referendum on wind energy projects to be held even after the developer has completed the project Rigorous state permitting and approval process. Residents could vote to block the investment, whose construction had already started. What sharp, pioneering company will attempt to build modern electricity infrastructure in Ohio only to face a disastrous referendum after millions have already been spent on the approval process and construction? This cumbersome regulation, combined with oppressive, arbitrary location of wind turbines Setbacks Act, will eliminate the jobs that modern wind projects can create for rural communities.
Conservatives and advocates of free market values ​​should find it disturbing that Republican leaders in the statehouse are the driving force behind HB 6. Republicans are supposed to be the party that cuts unnecessary regulations, frees up the free market, and lowers the tax burden on hard-working Americans. Republicans also advocate personal responsibility and environmental stewardship, as exemplified by Theodore Roosevelt’s national park system.
The proposals creating Ohio’s HB 6 run directly against these conservative, free-market values. Subsidizing power plants that cannot compete economically is contrary to the free market. Likewise, modern layers of regulation and bureaucracy are being added that deliberately ring-fence an entire industry, wind energy companies, and prevent them from operating. Ohio’s conservatives in the statehouse will turn their back on the Republican record of good economic and environmental stewardship if they pass this measure, which increases energy costs for families while increasing air pollution. Voters will not leave this act unpunished at the ballot box.
HB 6 achieves the opposite of what conservatism stands for, disrupting free market forces and making it harder for Ohioans to have access to spotless and affordable energy.
